Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf
Page Number: 34

8 

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH OF COLUMBIA, INC. v.
COMER 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting
 

Such  a  break  with  precedent  would  mark  a  radical 
mistake.  The Establishment Clause protects both religion 
and  government  from  the  dangers  that  result  when  the
two  become  entwined,  “not  by  providing  every  religion 
with an equal opportunity (say, to secure state funding or 
to  pray  in  the  public  schools),  but  by  drawing  fairly  clear 
lines  of  separation  between  church  and  state—at  least 
where  the  heartland  of  religious  belief,  such  as  primary 
religious  [worship],  is  at  issue.”  Zelman  v.  Simmons-
Harris,  536  U. S.  639,  722–723  (2002)  (BREYER,  J., 
dissenting). 

III 
Even assuming the absence of an Establishment Clause 
violation  and  proceeding  on  the  Court’s  preferred  front—
the  Free  Exercise  Clause—the  Court  errs.  It  claims  that 
the  government  may  not  draw  lines  based  on  an  entity’s 
religious  “status.”  But  we  have  repeatedly  said  that  it 
can.  When confronted with government action that draws
such  a  line,  we  have  carefully  considered  whether  the
interests  embodied  in  the  Religion  Clauses  justify  that 
line.  The  question  here  is  thus  whether  those  interests 
support the line drawn in Missouri’s Article I, §7, separat-
ing  the  State’s  treasury  from  those  of  houses  of  worship. 
They unquestionably do. 

A 
The Establishment Clause prohibits laws “respecting an
establishment  of  religion”  and  the  Free  Exercise  Clause
prohibits  laws  “prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof.” 
—————— 

Program  ranks  more  highly  those  applicants  who  agree  to  generate
media  exposure  for  Missouri  and  its  program  and  who  receive  the 
endorsement  of  local  solid  waste  management  entities.    That  is,  it 
prefers  applicants  who  agree  to  advertise  that  the  government  has 
funded  it  and  who  seek  out  the  approval  of  government  agencies.    To 
ignore this result is to ignore the type of state entanglement with, and 
endorsement of, religion the Establishment Clause guards against.