Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf
Page Number: 8

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

B 
Trinity  Lutheran  sued  the  Director  of  the  Department
in  Federal  District  Court.    The  Church  alleged  that  the
Department’s  failure  to  approve  the  Center’s  application,
pursuant  to  its  policy  of  denying  grants  to  religiously 
affiliated  applicants,  violates  the  Free  Exercise  Clause  of 
the  First  Amendment.    Trinity  Lutheran  sought  declara-
tory and injunctive relief prohibiting the Department from 
discriminating against the Church on that basis in future
grant applications.

The  District  Court  granted  the  Department’s  motion  to 
dismiss.  The  Free  Exercise  Clause,  the  District  Court 
stated,  prohibits  the  government  from  outlawing  or  re-
stricting  the  exercise  of  a  religious  practice;  it  generally
does  not  prohibit  withholding  an  affirmative  benefit  on
account  of  religion.    The  District  Court  likened  the  De-
partment’s  denial  of  the  scrap  tire  grant  to  the  situation 
this  Court  encountered  in  Locke  v.  Davey,  540  U. S.  712 
(2004).  In  that  case,  we  upheld  against  a  free  exercise
challenge  the  State  of  Washington’s  decision  not  to  fund
degrees  in  devotional  theology  as  part  of  a  state  scholar-
ship  program.    Finding  the  present  case  “nearly  indistin-
guishable  from  Locke,”  the  District  Court  held  that  the 
Free  Exercise  Clause  did  not  require  the  State  to  make 
funds available under the Scrap Tire Program to religious
institutions  like  Trinity  Lutheran.  Trinity  Lutheran 
Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley, 976 F. Supp. 2d 1137, 
1151 (WD Mo. 2013).

The  Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Eighth  Circuit  affirmed. 
The  court  recognized  that  it  was  “rather  clear”  that  Mis-
souri  could  award  a  scrap  tire  grant  to  Trinity  Lutheran
without running afoul of the Establishment Clause of the 
United  States  Constitution.    Trinity  Lutheran  Church  of 
Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley, 788 F. 3d 779, 784 (2015).  But, 
the  Court  of  Appeals  explained,  that  did  not  mean  the
Free Exercise Clause compelled the State to disregard the