Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf
Page Number: 6

2 

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH OF COLUMBIA, INC. v.
COMER 
Opinion of the Court 

to serve working families in Boone County, Missouri, and 
the  surrounding  area.  Established  as  a  nonprofit  organi-
zation  in  1980,  the  Center  merged  with  Trinity  Lutheran
Church in 1985 and operates under its auspices on church 
property.  The Center admits students of any religion, and
enrollment  stands  at  about  90  children  ranging  from  age 
two to five. 

The Center includes a playground that is equipped with
the  basic  playground  essentials:  slides,  swings,  jungle 
gyms,  monkey  bars,  and  sandboxes.    Almost  the  entire 
surface  beneath  and  surrounding  the  play  equipment  is 
coarse pea gravel.  Youngsters, of course, often fall on the 
playground  or  tumble  from  the  equipment.    And  when 
they do, the gravel can be unforgiving. 

In 2012, the Center sought to replace a large portion of 
the  pea  gravel  with  a  pour-in-place  rubber  surface  by
participating  in  Missouri’s  Scrap  Tire  Program.    Run  by
the State’s Department of Natural Resources to reduce the 
number of used tires destined for landfills and dump sites,
the  program  offers  reimbursement  grants  to  qualifying
nonprofit organizations that purchase playground surfaces
made  from  recycled  tires.    It  is  funded  through  a  fee  im-
posed on the sale of new tires in the State. 

Due  to  limited  resources,  the  Department  cannot  offer 
grants to all applicants and so awards them on a competi-
tive  basis  to  those  scoring  highest  based  on  several  crite-
ria,  such  as  the  poverty  level  of  the  population  in  the 
surrounding  area  and  the  applicant’s  plan  to  promote
recycling.  When the Center applied, the Department had 
a strict and express policy of denying grants to any appli-
cant  owned  or  controlled  by  a  church,  sect,  or  other  reli-
gious  entity.  That  policy,  in  the  Department’s  view,  was 
compelled by Article I, Section 7 of the Missouri Constitu-
tion, which provides: 

“That  no  money  shall  ever  be  taken  from  the  public