Source: https://casetext.com/case/roemer-v-maryland-public-works-bd
Timestamp: 2019-11-13 16:09:58
Document Index: 752405941

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1253', 'Art. 77', '§ 65', '§ 65', '§ 67', '§ 68', 'Art. 77', '§ 66', '§ 68', '§ 68', '§ 68', 'Art. 77', '§ 68']

Roemer v. Maryland Public Works Bd, 426 U.S. 736 | Casetext
Roemerv.Maryland Public Works Bd.
The court concluded that the Commission's action was justified by a compelling state interest. Specifically,…
See Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589, 108 S.Ct. 2562, 101 L.Ed.2d 520 (1988); Witters v. Washington Department…
holding there was no excessive entanglement where State conducts annual audits to ensure that categorical state grants to religious colleges are not used to teach religion
holding no excessive entanglement resulted from state's annual audit of teaching materials in religious colleges, to ensure state grants were not used for “sectarian purposes”
finding no violation of Establishment Clause in providing government aid to both public and private universities
Argued February 23, 1976 Decided June 21, 1976
In 1971, a Maryland statute was enacted that authorizes the payment of state funds to any private institution of higher learning within the State that meets certain minimum criteria, and refrains from awarding "only seminarian or theological degrees." The aid is in the form of an annual fiscal year subsidy to qualifying colleges and universities, based upon the number of students, excluding those in seminarian or theological academic programs. The grants are noncategorical but may not, under a provision added in 1972, "be utilized by the institutions for sectarian purposes." The assistance program is primarily administered by the Maryland Council for Higher Education, which, in order to insure compliance with statutory restrictions, (1) determines whether an applicant institution is eligible at all, or is one "awarding primarily theological or seminary degrees," and (2) requires that eligible institutions not use funds for sectarian purposes. At the end of the fiscal year the recipient institution must make a report and separately identify the aided nonsectarian expenditures, subject to the Council's verification if necessary. This suit was brought by appellants, four individual Maryland citizens and taxpayers, who challenged the statutory scheme as violative of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and claimed that appellees, four colleges affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, were constitutionally ineligible for the state aid. The District Court, applying the three-part requirement of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 ( viz., state aid such as this must have a secular purpose, a primary effect other than the advancement of religion, and no tendency to entangle the State excessively in church affairs), upheld the statute and denied appellants relief. The court found that, despite their formal affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church, appellee colleges are not "pervasively sectarian." The court also found that aid was in fact extended only to "the secular side," having taken cognizance of the statutory prohibition against sectarian use, and the Council's administrative enforcement of that prohibition. The court also found that "there is no necessity for state officials to investigate the conduct of particular classes of educational programs to determine whether a school is attempting to indoctrinate its students under the guise of secular education," and that "excessive entanglement" does not necessarily result from the fact that the subsidy is on an annual basis. Though occasional audits are possible to verify the sectarian purposes of expenditures, the District Court found that they would be "quick and non-judgmental." Held: The judgment is affirmed. Pp. 745-767; 767-770.
(b) The aid provided under the Maryland statute does not have a primary effect of advancing religion under the refinement of the test added by Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S. 734, 743, that aid has such an effect "when it flows to an institution in which religion is so pervasive that a substantial portion of its functions are subsumed in the religious mission or when it funds a specifically religious activity in an otherwise substantially secular setting." Here the District Court's finding that appellee colleges are not "pervasively sectarian" was supported by a number of subsidiary findings concerning the role of religion on the college campuses. Such findings are not clearly erroneous, and the general picture that the District Court has painted of the appellee institutions is similar in almost all respects to that of the church-affiliated colleges considered in Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672, and Hunt v. McNair, supra. Pp. 755-759.
BLACKMUN, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which BURGER, C. J., and POWELL, J., joined. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which REHNQUIST, J., joined, post, p. 767. BRENNAN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which MARSHALL, J., joined, post, p. 770. STEWART, J., post, p. 773, and STEVENS, J., post, p. 775, filed dissenting opinions.
[*] Page 739 Leo Pfeffer filed a brief for the National Coalition for Public Education and Religious Liberty as amicus curiae urging reversal.
We are asked once again to police the constitutional boundary between church and state. Maryland, this time, is the alleged trespasser. It has enacted a statute which, as amended, provides for annual noncategorical grants to private colleges, among them religiously affiliated institutions, subject only to the restrictions that the funds not be used for "sectarian purposes." A three-judge District Court, by a divided vote, refused to enjoin the operation of the statute, 387 F. Supp. 1282 (Md. 1974), and a direct appeal has been taken to this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1253.
The challenged grant program was instituted by Laws of 1971, c. 626, and is now embodied in Md. Ann. Code, Art. 77A, §§ 65-69 (1975). It provides funding for "any private institution of higher learning within the State of Maryland," provided the institution is accredited by the State Department of Education, was established in Maryland prior to July 1, 1970, maintains one or more "associate of arts or baccalaureate degree" programs, and refrains from awarding "only seminarian or theological degrees." §§ 65-66. The aid is in the form of an annual fiscal year subsidy to qualifying colleges and universities. The formula by which each institution's entitlement is computed has been changed several times and is not independently at issue here. It now provides for a qualifying institution to receive, for each full-time student (excluding students enrolled in seminarian or theological academic programs), an amount equal to 15% of the State's per-full-time-pupil appropriation for a student in the state college system. § 67. As first enacted, the grants were completely unrestricted. They remain noncategorical in nature, and a recipient institution may put them to whatever use it prefers, with but one exception. In 1972, following this Court's decisions in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971) ( Lemon I), and Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672 (1971), § 68A was added to the statute by Laws of 1972, c. 534. It provides:
A. 1974 amendment to the statute, Laws of 1974, c. 585, further requires that an aided institution
"shall submit all new programs and major alterations of programs to the Maryland Council for Higher Education for its review and recommendation regarding their initiation." Md. Ann. Code, Art. 77A, § 66(e) (1975).
The administration of the grant program is entrusted to the State's Board of Public Works "assisted by the Maryland Council for Higher Education." These bodies are to adopt "criteria and procedures . . . for the implementation and administration of the aid program." They are specifically authorized to adopt "criteria and procedures" governing the method of application for grants and of their disbursement, the verification of degrees conferred, and the "submission of reports or data concerning the utilization of these moneys by [the aided] institutions." § 68. Primary responsibility for the program rests with the Council for Higher Education, an appointed commission which antedates the aid program, which has numerous other responsibilities in the educational field, and which has derived from these a "considerable expertise as to the character and functions of the various private colleges and universities in the State." 387 F. Supp., at 1285.
The Council performs what the District Court described as a "two-step screening process" to insure compliance with the statutory restrictions on the grants. First, it determines whether an institution applying for aid is eligible at all, or is one "awarding primarily theological or seminary degrees." Several applicants have been disqualified at this stage of the process. Id., at 1289, 1296. Second, the Council requires that those institutions that are eligible for funds not put them to any sectarian use. An application must be accompanied by an affidavit of the institution's chief executive officer stating that the funds will not be used for sectarian purposes, and by a description of the specific nonsectarian uses that are planned. These may be changed only after written notice to the Council. By the end of the fiscal year the institution must file a "Utilization of Funds Report" describing and itemizing the use of the funds. The chief executive officer must certify the report and also file his own "Post-expenditure Affidavit," stating that the funds have not been put to sectarian uses. The recipient institution is further required to segregate state funds in a "special revenue account" and to identify aided nonsectarian expenditures separately in its budget. It must retain "sufficient documentation of the State funds expended to permit verification by the Council that funds were not spent for sectarian purposes." Any question of sectarian use that may arise is to be resolved by the Council, if possible, on the basis of information submitted to it by the institution and without actual examination of its books. Failing that, a "verification or audit" may be undertaken. The District Court found that the audit would be "quick and non-judgmental," taking one day or less. Id., at 1296.
In 1971, $1.7 million was disbursed to 17 private institutions in Maryland. The disbursements were under the statute as originally enacted, and were therefore not subject to § 68A's specific prohibition on sectarian use. Of the 17 institutions, five were church related, and these received $520,000 of the $1.7 million. A total of $1.8 million was to be awarded to 18 institutions in 1972, the second year of the grant program; of this amount, $603,000 was to go to church-related institutions. Before disbursement, however, this suit, challenging the grants as in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, was filed. The $603,000 was placed in escrow and was so held until after the entry of the District Court's judgment on October 21, 1974. These and subsequent awards, therefore, are subject to § 68A and to the Council's procedures for insuring compliance therewith.
The command of the First Amendment that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," is applicable to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 8 (1947); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303 (1940).
Plaintiffs in this suit, appellants here, are four individual Maryland citizens and taxpayers. Their complaint sought a declaration of the statute's invalidity, an order enjoining payments under it to church-affiliated institutions, and a declaration that the State was entitled to recover from such institutions any amounts already disbursed. App. 10. In addition to the responsible state officials, plaintiff-appellants joined as defendants the five institutions they claimed were constitutionally ineligible for this form of aid: Western Maryland College, College of Notre Dame, Mount Saint Mary's College, Saint Joseph College, and Loyola College. Of these, the last four are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church; Western Maryland, was a Methodist affiliate. The District Court ruled with respect to all five. Western Maryland, however, has since been dismissed as a defendant-appellee. We are concerned, therefore, only with the four Roman Catholic affiliates.
Two organizations, American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, were also plaintiffs in this suit at its outset. They were dismissed, however, for lack of standing. 387 F. Supp. 1282, 1284 n. 1 (1974).
After carefully assessing the role that the Catholic Church plays in the lives of these institutions, a matter to which we return in greater detail below, and applying the three-part requirement of Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 612-613, that state aid such as this have a secular purpose, a primary effect other than the advancement of religion, and no tendency to entangle the State excessively in church affairs, the District Court ruled that the amended statute was constitutional and was not to be enjoined. The court considered the original, unamended statute to have been unconstitutional under Lemon I, but it refused to order a refund of amounts theretofore paid out, reasoning that any refund was barred by the decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 411 U.S. 192 (1973) ( Lemon II). The District Court therefore denied all relief. This appeal followed. We noted probable jurisdiction. 420 U.S. 922 (1975).
A system of government that makes itself felt as pervasively as ours could hardly be expected never to cross paths with the church. In fact, our State and Federal Governments impose certain burdens upon, and impart certain benefits to, virtually all our activities, and religious activity is not an exception. The Court has enforced a scrupulous neutrality by the State, as among religions, and also as between religious and other activities, but a hermetic separation of the two is an impossibility it has never required. It long has been established, for example, that the State may send a cleric, indeed even a clerical order, to perform a wholly secular task. In Bradfield v. Roberts, 175 U.S. 291 (1899), the Court upheld the extension of public aid to a corporation which, although composed entirely of members of a Roman Catholic sisterhood acting "under the auspices of said church," id., at 297, was limited by its corporate charter to the secular purpose of operating a charitable hospital.
See, e. g., Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 104 (1968); McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 209-212 (1948); Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S., at 15-16.
And religious institutions need not be quarantined from public benefits that are neutrally available to all. The Court has permitted the State to supply transportation for children to and from church-related as well as public schools. Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947). It has done the same with respect to secular textbooks loaned by the State on equal terms to students attending both public and church-related elementary schools. Board of Education v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236 (1968). Since it had not been shown in Allen that the secular textbooks would be put to other than secular purposes, the Court concluded that, as in Everson, the State was merely "extending the benefits of state laws to all citizens." Id., at 242. Just as Bradfield dispels any notion that a religious person can never be in the State's pay for a secular purpose, Everson and Allen put to rest any argument that the State may never act in such a way that has the incidental effect of facilitating religious activity. The Court has not been blind to the fact that in aiding a religious institution to perform a secular task, the State frees the institution's resources to be put to sectarian ends. If this were impermissible, however, a church could not be protected by the police and fire departments, or have its public sidewalk kept in repair. The Court never has held that religious activities must be discriminated against in this way.
See Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S. 734, 743 (1973) ("the Court has not accepted the recurrent argument that all aid is forbidden because aid to one aspect of an institution frees it to spend its other resources on religious ends"). See also Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756, 775 (1973); Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672, 679 (1971) (plurality opinion); Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 664 (1971) (opinion of WHITE, J.); Board of Education v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236, 244 (1968); Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S., at 17.
Neutrality is what is required. The State must confine itself to secular objectives, and neither advance nor impede religious activity. Of course, that principle is more easily stated than applied. The Court has taken the view that a secular purpose and a facial neutrality may not be enough, if in fact the State is lending direct support to a religious activity. The State may not, for example, pay for what is actually a religious education, even though it purports to be paying for a secular one, and even though it makes its aid available to secular and religious institutions alike. The Court also has taken the view that the State's efforts to perform a secular task, and at the same time avoid aiding in the performance of a religious one, may not lead it into such an intimate relationship with religious authority that it appears either to be sponsoring or to be excessively interfering with that authority. In Lemon I as noted above, the Court distilled these concerns into a three-prong test, resting in part on prior case law, for the constitutionality of statutes affording state aid to church-related schools:
The importance of avoiding persistent and potentially frictional contact between governmental and religious authorities is such that it has been held to justify the extension, rather than the withholding, of certain benefits to religious organizations. The Court upheld the exemption of such organizations from property taxation partly on this ground. Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664, 674-675 (1970).
"First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion . . .; finally, the statute must not foster `an excessive government entanglement with religion.'" 403 U.S., at 612-613.
At issue in Lemon I were two state-aid plans, a Rhode Island program to grant a 15% supplement to the salaries of private, church-related school teachers teaching secular courses, and a Pennsylvania program to reimburse private church-related schools for the entire cost of secular courses also offered in public schools. Both failed the third part of the test, that of "excessive government entanglement." This part the Court held in turn required a consideration of three factors: (1) the character and purposes of the benefited institutions, (2) the nature of the aid provided, and (3) the resulting relationship between the State and the religious authority. Id., at 615. As to the first of these, in reviewing the Rhode Island program, the Court found that the aided schools, elementary and secondary, were characterized by "substantial religious activity and purpose." Id., at 616. They were located near parish churches. Religious instruction was considered "part of the total educational process." Id., at 615. Religious symbols and religious activities abounded. Two-thirds of the teachers were nuns, and their operation of the schools was regarded as an "`integral part of the religious mission of the Catholic Church.'" Id., at 616. The schooling came at an impressionable age. The form of aid also cut against the programs. Unlike the textbooks in Allen and the bus transportation in Everson, the services of the state-supported teachers could not be counted on to be purely secular. They were bound to mix religious teachings with secular ones, not by conscious design, perhaps, but because the mixture was inevitable when teachers (themselves usually Catholics) were "employed by a religious organization, subject to the direction and discipline of religious authorities, and work[ed] in a system dedicated to rearing children in a particular faith." Id., at 618. The State's efforts to supervise and control the teaching of religion in supposedly secular classes would therefore inevitably entangle it excessively in religious affairs. The Pennsylvania program similarly foundered.
The danger of political divisiveness had been noted by Members of the Court in previous cases. See Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S., at 695 (opinion of Harlan, J.); Board of Education v. Allen, Page 750 392 U.S., at 249 (Harlan, J., concurring); Abington School Dist. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 307 (1963) (Goldberg, J., concurring).
In Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672 (1971), a companion case to Lemon I, the Court reached the contrary result. The aid challenged in Tilton was in the form of federal grants for the construction of academic facilities at private colleges, some of them church related, with the restriction that the facilities not be used for any sectarian purpose. Applying Lemon I's three-part test, the Court found the purpose of the federal aid program there under consideration to be secular. Its primary effect was not the advancement of religion, for sectarian use of the facilities was prohibited. Enforcement of this prohibition was made possible by the fact that religion did not so permeate the defendant colleges that their religious and secular functions were inseparable. On the contrary, there was no evidence that religious activities took place in the funded facilities. Courses at the colleges were "taught according to the academic requirements intrinsic to the subject matter," and "an atmosphere of academic freedom rather than religious indoctrination" was maintained. 403 U.S., at 680-682 (plurality opinion).
The restriction, as imposed, was to remain in effect for 20 years following construction. Since the Court could not approve the facilities' sectarian use even after a 20-year period, it excised that time limitation from the statute. 403 U.S., at 682-684 (plurality opinion).
As for political divisiveness, no "continuing religious aggravation" over the program had been shown, and the Court reasoned that this might be because of the lack of continuity in the church-state relationship, the character and diversity of the colleges, and the fact that they served a dispersed student constituency rather than a local one. "[C]umulatively," all these considerations persuaded the Court that church-state entanglement was not excessive. 403 U.S., at 684-689.
In Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S. 734 (1973), the challenged aid was also for the construction of secular college facilities, the state plan being one to finance the construction by revenue bonds issued through the medium of a state authority. In effect, the college serviced and repaid the bonds, but at the lower cost resulting from the tax-free status of the interest payments. The Court upheld the program on reasoning analogous to that in Tilton. In applying the second of the Lemon I's three-part test, that concerning "primary effect," the following refinement was added:
"Aid normally may be thought to have a primary effect of advancing religion when it flows to an institution in which religion is so pervasive that a substantial portion of its functions are subsumed in the religious mission or when it funds a specifically religious activity in an otherwise substantially secular setting." 413 U.S., at 743.
Although the college which Hunt concerned was subject to substantial control by its sponsoring Baptist Church, it was found to be similar to the colleges in Tilton and not "pervasively sectarian." As in Tilton, state aid went to secular facilities only, and thus not to any "specifically religious activity." 413 U.S., at 743-745.
Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756 (1973), followed in Lemon I's wake much as Hunt followed in Tilton's. The aid in Nyquist was to elementary and secondary schools which, the District Court found, generally conformed to a "profile" of a sectarian or substantially religious school. The state aid took three forms: direct subsidies for the maintenance and repair of buildings; reimbursement of parents for a percentage of tuition paid; and certain tax benefits for parents. All three forms of aid were found to have an impermissible primary effect. The maintenance and repair subsidies, being unrestricted, could be used for the upkeep of a chapel or classrooms used for religious instruction. The reimbursements and tax benefits to parents could likewise be used to support wholly religious activities.
The elements of the "profile" were that the schools placed religious restrictions on admission and also faculty appointments; that they enforced obedience to religious dogma; that they required attendance at religious services and the study of particular religious doctrine; that they were an "`integral part'" of the religious mission of the sponsoring church; that they had religious indoctrination as a "`substantial purpose'"; and that they imposed religious restrictions on how and what the faculty could teach. 413 U.S., at 767-768.
In Levitt v. Committee for Public Education, 413 U.S. 472 (1973), the Court also invalidated a program for public aid to church-affiliated schools. The grants, which were to elementary and secondary schools in New York, were in the form of reimbursements for the schools' testing and recordkeeping expenses. The schools met the same sectarian profile as did those in Nyquist, at least in some cases. There was therefore "substantial risk" that the state-founded tests would be "drafted with an eye, unconsciously or otherwise, to inculcate students in the religious precepts of the sponsoring church." 413 U.S., at 480.
Last Term, in Meek v. Pittenger, 421 U.S. 349 (1975), the Court ruled yet again on a state-aid program for church-related elementary and secondary schools. On the authority of Allen, it upheld a Pennsylvania program for lending textbooks to private school students. It found, however, that Lemon I required the invalidation of two other forms of aid to the private schools. The first was the loan of instructional materials and equipment. Like the textbooks, these were secular and nonideological in nature. Unlike the textbooks, however, they were loaned directly to the schools. The schools, similar to those in Lemon I, were ones in which "the teaching process is, to a large extent, devoted to the inculcation of religious values and belief." 421 U.S., at 366. Aid flowing directly to such "religion-pervasive institutions," ibid., had the primary effect of advancing religion. See Hunt v. McNair, supra. The other form of aid was the provision of "auxiliary" educational services: remedial instruction, counseling and testing, and speech and hearing therapy. These also were intended to be neutral and nonideological, and in fact were to be provided by public school teachers. Still, there was danger that the teachers, in such a sectarian setting, would allow religion to seep into their instruction. To attempt to prevent this from happening would excessively entangle the State in church affairs. The Court referred again to the danger of political divisiveness, heightened, as it had been in Lemon I and Nyquist, by the necessity of annual legislative reconsideration of the aid appropriation. 421 U.S., at 372.
The first part of Lemon I's three-part test is not in issue; appellants do not challenge the District Court's finding that the purpose of Maryland's aid program is the secular one of supporting private higher education generally, as an economic alternative to a wholly public system. The focus of the debate is on the second and third parts, those concerning the primary effect of advancing religion, and excessive church-state entanglement. We consider them in the same order.
(c) Mandatory religion or theology courses are taught at each of the colleges, primarily by Roman Catholic clerics, but these only supplement a curriculum covering "the spectrum of a liberal arts program." Nontheology courses are taught in an "atmosphere of intellectual freedom" and without "religious pressures." Each college subscribes to, and abides by, the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom of the American Association of University Professors. Id., at 1288, 1293, and n. 3, 1295.
The District Court did not make the same finding with respect to theology and religion courses taught at the appellee colleges. It made no contrary finding, but simply was "unable to characterize the course offerings in these subjects." There was a "possibility" that "these courses could be devoted to deepening religious experiences in the particular faith rather than to teaching theology as an academic discipline." The court considered this possibility sufficient to require that the Council for Higher Education take steps to insure that no public funds would be used to support religion and theology programs. 387 F. Supp., at 1287-1288, 1295-1296. The Council has complied. See n. 22, infra. There being no cross-appeal from the District Court judgment, this aspect of its ruling is not before us, and we express no opinion as to it.
"None of these facts impairs the clear and convincing evidence that courses at each defendant are taught `according to the academic requirements intrinsic to the subject matter and the individual teacher's concept of professional standards.' [citing Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S., at 681]." Id., at 1293-1294.
We cannot say that the foregoing findings as to the role of religion in particular aspects of the colleges are clearly erroneous. Appellants ask us to set those findings aside in certain respects. Not surprisingly, they have gleaned from this record of thousands of pages, compiled during several weeks of trial, occasional evidence of a more sectarian character than the District Court ascribes to the colleges. It is not our place, however, to reappraise the evidence, unless it plainly fails to support the findings of the trier of facts. That is certainly not the case here, and it would make no difference even if we were to second-guess the District Court in certain particulars. To answer the question whether an institution is so "pervasively sectarian" that it may receive no direct state aid of any kind, it is necessary to paint a general picture of the institution, composed of many elements. The general picture that the District Court has painted of the appellee institutions is similar in almost all respects to that of the church-affiliated colleges considered in Tilton and Hunt. We find no constitutionally significant distinction between them, at least for purposes of the "pervasive sectarianism" test.
"All four schools are governed by Catholic religious organizations, and the faculties and student bodies at each are predominantly Catholic. Nevertheless, the evidence shows that non-Catholics were admitted as students and given faculty appointments. Not one of these four institutions requires its students to attend religious services. Although all four schools require their students to take theology courses, the parties stipulated that these courses are taught according to the academic requirements of the subject matter and the teacher's concept of professional standards. The parties also stipulated that the courses covered a range of human religious experiences and are not limited to courses about the Roman Catholic religion. The schools introduced evidence that they made no attempt to indoctrinate students or to proselytize. Indeed, some of Page 759 the required theology courses at Albertus Magnus and Sacred Heart are taught by rabbis. Finally, as we have noted, these four schools subscribe to a well-established set of principles of academic freedom, and nothing in this record shows that these principles are not in fact followed. In short, the evidence shows institutions with admittedly religious functions but whose predominant higher education mission is to provide their students with a secular education." 403 U.S., at 686-687.
The role of the affiliated church appears, if anything, to have been stronger in Hunt than in this case. The Baptist College at Charleston, before us in Hunt, was controlled by the South Carolina Baptist Convention to the extent that the Convention elected all members of the Board of Trustees, and retained the power to approve certain financial transactions, as well as any amendment of the College's charter. 413 U.S., at 743.
(2) Having found that the appellee institutions are not "so permeated by religion that the secular side cannot be separated from the sectarian," 387 F. Supp., at 1293, the District Court proceeded to the next question posed by Hunt: whether aid in fact was extended only to "the secular side." This requirement the court regarded as satisfied by the statutory prohibition against sectarian use, and by the administrative enforcement of that prohibition through the Council for Higher Education. We agree. Hunt requires only that state funds not be used to support "specifically religious activity." It is clear that fund uses exist that meet this requirement. See Tilton v. Richardson, supra; Hunt v. McNair, supra. We have no occasion to elaborate further on what is and is not a "specifically religious activity," for no particular use of the state funds is set out in this statute. Funds are put to the use of the college's choice, provided it is not a sectarian use, of which the college must satisfy the Council. If the question is whether the statute sought to be enjoined authorizes state funds for "specifically religious activity," that question fairly answers itself. The statute in terms forbids the use of funds for "sectarian purposes," and this prohibition appears to be at least as broad as Hunt's prohibition of the public funding of "specifically religious activity." We must assume that the colleges, and the Council, will exercise their delegated control over use of the funds in compliance with the statutory, and therefore the constitutional, mandate. It is to be expected that they will give a wide berth to "specifically religious activity," and thus minimize constitutional questions. Should such questions arise, the courts will consider them. It has not been the Court's practice, in considering facial challenges to statutes of this kind, to strike them down in anticipation that particular applications may result in unconstitutional use of funds. See, e. g., Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S., at 744; Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S., at 682 (plurality opinion).
"A. Art. 77A, § 68A, Annotated Code of Maryland, prohibits recipient institutions from using State funds for `sectarian purposes.' That provision generally proscribes the use of State funds to support religious instruction, religious worship, or other activities of a religious nature. Listed below are several potential uses of State funds which would violate the sectarian use prohibition. The list is not intended to be all-inclusive and, if an institution is in doubt whether any other possible use of the funds might violate the sectarian Page 761 use prohibition, it should consult with and seek the advice of the Council in advance.
If the foregoing answer to the "primary effect" question seems easy, it serves to make the "excessive entanglement" problem more difficult. The statute itself clearly denies the use of public funds for "sectarian purposes." It seeks to avert such use, however, through a process of annual interchange — proposal and approval, expenditure and review — between the colleges and the Council. In answering the question whether this will be an "excessively entangling" relationship, we must consider the several relevant factors identified in prior decisions:
(1) First is the character of the aided institutions. This has been fully described above. As the District Court found, the colleges perform "essentially secular educational functions," 387 F. Supp., at 1288, that are distinct and separable from religious activity. This finding, which is a prerequisite under the "pervasive sectarianism" test to any state aid at all, is also important for purposes of the entanglement test because it means that secular activities, for the most part, can be taken at face value. There is no danger, or at least only a substantially reduced danger, that an ostensibly secular activity — the study of biology, the learning of a foreign language, an athletic event — will actually be infused with religious content or significance. The need for close surveillance of purportedly secular activities is correspondingly reduced. Thus the District Court found that in this case "there is no necessity for state officials to investigate the conduct of particular classes of educational programs to determine whether a school is attempting to indoctrinate its students under the guise of secular education." Id., at 1289. We cannot say the District Court erred in this judgment or gave it undue significance. The Court took precisely the same view with respect to the aid extended to the very similar institutions in Tilton. 403 U.S., at 687 (plurality opinion). See also Hunt v. McNair, supra, at 746.
We agree with the District Court that "excessive entanglement" does not necessarily result from the fact that the subsidy is an annual one. It is true that the Court favored the "one-time, single-purpose" construction grants in Tilton because they entailed "no continuing financial relationships or dependencies, no annual audits, and no government analysis of an institution's expenditures." 403 U.S., at 688 (plurality opinion). The present aid program cannot claim these aspects. But if the question is whether this case is more like Lemon I or more like Tilton — and surely that is the fundamental question before us — the answer must be that it is more like Tilton.
Tilton is distinguishable only by the form of aid. We cannot discount the distinction entirely, but neither can we regard it as decisive. As the District Court pointed out, ongoing, annual supervision of college facilities was explicitly foreseen in Tilton, 403 U.S., at 675; see also Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 669 (opinion of WHITE, J.), and even more so in Hunt, 413 U.S., at 739-740, 745-749. Tilton and Hunt would be totally indistinguishable, at least in terms of annual supervision, if funds were used under the present statute to build or maintain physical facilities devoted to secular use. The present statute contemplates annual decisions by the Council as to what is a "sectarian purpose," but, as we have noted, the secular and sectarian activities of the colleges are easily separated. Occasional audits are possible here, but we must accept the District Court's finding that they would be "quick and non-judgmental." 387 F. Supp., at 1296. They and the other contacts between the Council and the colleges are not likely to be any more entangling than the inspections and audits incident to the normal process of the colleges' accreditations by the State.
While the form-of-aid distinctions of Tilton are thus of questionable importance, the character-of-institution distinctions of Lemon I are most impressive. To reiterate a few of the relevant points: The elementary and secondary schooling in Lemon I came at an impressionable age; the aided schools were "under the general supervision" of the Roman Catholic diocese; each school had a local Catholic parish that assumed "ultimate financial responsibility" for it; the principals of the schools were usually appointed by church authorities; religion "pervade[d] the school system"; teachers were specifically instructed by the "Handbook of School Regulations" that "`[r]eligious formation is not confined to formal courses; nor is it restricted to a single subject area.'" 403 U.S., at 617-618. These things made impossible what is crucial to a nonentangling aid program: the ability of the State to identify and subsidize separate secular functions carried out at the school, without on-the-site inspections being necessary to prevent diversion of the funds to sectarian purposes. The District Court gave primary importance to this consideration, and we cannot say it erred.
(4) As for political divisiveness, the District Court recognized that the annual nature of the subsidy, along with its promise of an increasing demand for state funds as the colleges' dependency grew, aggravated the danger of "[p]olitical fragmentation . . . on religious lines." Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 623. Nonetheless, the District Court found that the program "does not create a substantial danger of political entanglement." 387 F. Supp., at 1291. Several reasons were given. As was stated in Tilton, the danger of political divisiveness is "substantially less" when the aided institution is not an elementary or secondary school, but a college, "whose student constituency is not local but diverse and widely dispersed." 403 U.S., at 688-689. Furthermore, political divisiveness is diminished by the fact that the aid is extended to private colleges generally, more than two-thirds of which have no religious affiliation; this is in sharp contrast to Nyquist, for example, where 95% of the aided schools were Roman Catholic parochial schools. Finally, the substantial autonomy of the colleges was thought to mitigate political divisiveness, in that controversies surrounding the aid program are not likely to involve the Catholic Church itself, or even the religious character of the schools, but only their "fiscal responsibility and educational requirements." 387 F. Supp., at 1290-1291.
The District Court's reasoning seems to us entirely sound. Once again, appellants urge that this case is controlled by previous cases in which the form of aid was similar ( Lemon I, Nyquist, Levitt), rather than those in which the character of the aided institution was the same ( Tilton, Hunt). We disagree. Though indisputably relevant, see Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 623-624, the annual nature of the aid cannot be dispositive. On the one hand, the Court has struck down a "permanent," nonannual tax exemption, reasoning that "the pressure for frequent enlargement of the relief is predictable," as it always is. Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S., at 797. On the other hand, in Tilton it has upheld a program for "one-time, single-purpose" construction grants, despite the fact that such grants would, in fact, be "annual," at least insofar as new grants would be annually applied for. 403 U.S., at 688. See Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 669 (opinion of WHITE, J.). Our holdings are better reconciled in terms of the character of the aided institutions, found to be so dissimilar as between those considered in Tilton and Hunt, on the one hand, and those considered in Lemon I, Nyquist, and Levitt, on the other.
There is no exact science in gauging the entanglement of church and state. The wording of the test, which speaks of " excessive entanglement," itself makes that clear. The relevant factors we have identified are to be considered "cumulatively" in judging the degree of entanglement. Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S., at 688. They may cut different ways, as certainly they do here. In reaching the conclusion that it did, the District Court gave dominant importance to the character of the aided institutions and to its finding that they are capable of separating secular and religious functions. For the reasons stated above, we cannot say that the emphasis was misplaced or the finding erroneous.
In any event, the District Court's ruling with respect to the 1971 payments was clearly in keeping with Lemon II. In that case, this Court identified two considerations primarily relevant to the question of retroactive remedy: (1) the reasonableness and degree of reliance by the institutions on the payments, and (2) the necessity of refunds to protect the substantive constitutional rights involved. Reliance was, if anything, less reasonable in Lemon II, where at least a suit had been filed prior to the time the reliance occurred. The Page 768 degree of reliance was also, if anything, less in Lemon II There the colleges had not yet received the funds in question, but had simply incurred expenses in expectation of receiving them. The funds in question here long since have been paid out to, and spent by, the colleges. As for the protection of substantive constitutional rights, the separation of church and state may well be better served by not putting the State of Maryland in the position of a judgment creditor of the appellee colleges. Cf. Walz v. Tax Comm'n, 397 U.S., at 674.
While I join in the judgment of the Court, I am unable to concur in the plurality opinion substantially for the reasons set forth in my opinions in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971) ( Lemon I), and Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756 (1973). I am no more reconciled now to Lemon I than I was when it was decided. See Nyquist, supra, at 820 (WHITE, J., dissenting). The threefold test of Lemon I imposes unnecessary, and, as I believe today's plurality opinion demonstrates, superfluous tests for establishing "when the State's involvement with religion passes the peril point" for First Amendment purposes. Id., at 822.
"It is enough for me that the [State is] financing a separable secular function of overriding importance in order to sustain the legislation here challenged." Lemon I, supra, at 664 (opinion of WHITE, J.). As long as there is a secular legislative purpose, and as long as the primary effect of the legislation is neither to advance nor inhibit religion, I see no reason — particularly in light of the "sparse language of the Establishment Clause," Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, supra, at 820 — to take the constitutional inquiry further. See Lemon I, supra, at 661 (opinion of WHITE, J.); Nyquist, supra, at 813 (WHITE, J., dissenting). However, since 1970, the Court has added a third element to the inquiry: whether there is "an excessive government entanglement with religion." Walz v. Tax Comm'n, 397 U.S. 664, 674 (1970). I have never understood the constitutional foundation for this added element; it is at once both insolubly paradoxical, see Lemon I, supra, at 668, and — as the Court has conceded from the outset — a "blurred, indistinct, and variable barrier." Lemon I, supra, at 614. It is not clear that the "weight and contours of entanglement as a separate constitutional criterion," Nyquist, supra, at 822, are any more settled now than when they first surfaced. Today's plurality opinion leaves the impression that the criterion really may not be "separate" at all. In affirming the District Court's conclusion that the legislation here does not create an "excessive entanglement" of church and state, the plurality emphasizes with approval that "the District Court gave dominant importance to the character of the aided institutions and to its finding that they are capable of separating secular and religious functions." Ante, at 766. Yet these are the same factors upon which the plurality focuses in concluding that the Maryland legislation satisfies the second part of the Lemon I test: that on the record the "appellee colleges are not `pervasively sectarian,'" ante, at 755, and that the aid at issue was capable of, and is in fact, extended only to "`the secular side'" of the appellee colleges' operations. Ante, at 759. It is unclear to me how the first and third parts of the Lemon I test are substantially different. The "excessive entanglement" test appears no less "curious and mystifying" than when it was first announced. Lemon I, supra, at 666.
Our prior cases demonstrate that the question of whether aid programs satisfy the "excessive entanglement" test depends at least to some extent on the degree to which the Court accepts lower courts' findings of fact. Cf., e. g., Lemon I, 403 U.S., at 665-667 (opinion of WHITE, J.); Meek v. Pittenger, 421 U.S. 349, 392 (1975) (opinion of REHNQUIST, J.).
I agree with Judge Bryan, dissenting from the judgment under review, that the Maryland Act " in these instances does in truth offend the Constitution by its provisions of funds, in that it exposes State money for use in advancing religion, no matter the vigilance to avoid it." 387 F. Supp. 1282, 1298 (1974) (emphasis in original). Each of the institutions is a church-affiliated or church-related body. The subsidiary findings concerning the role of religion on each of the campuses, summarized by the plurality opinion, ante, at 755-758, conclusively establish that fact. In that circumstance, I agree with Judge Bryan that "[o]f telling decisiveness here is the payment of the grants directly to the colleges unmarked in purpose. . . . Presently the Act is simply a blunderbuss discharge of public funds to a church-affiliated or church-related college." 387 F. Supp., at 1298-1299. In other words, the Act provides for payment of general subsidies to religious institutions from public funds and I have heretofore expressed my view that "[g]eneral subsidies of religious activities would, of course, constitute impermissible state involvement with religion." Walz v. Tax Comm'n, 397 U.S. 664, 690 (1970) (concurring opinion). This is because general subsidies "tend to promote that type of interdependence between religion and state which the First Amendment was designed to prevent." Abington School Dist. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 236 (1963) (BRENNAN, J., concurring). "What the Framers meant to foreclose, and what our decisions under the Establishment Clause have forbidden, are those involvements of religious with secular institutions which . . . serve the essentially religious activities of religious institutions." Id., at 294-295.
The history of the bitter controversies over public subsidy of sectarian educational institutions that began soon after the Nation was formed is recited in my separate opinion in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 642 (1971) ( Lemon I). My reasons for concluding in Lemon I that all three statutes there before us impermissibly provided a direct subsidy from public funds for activities carried on by sectarian educational institutions also support my agreement with Judge Bryan in this case that "an injunction should issue as prayed in the complaint, stopping future payments under the Maryland Act to the [appellee] colleges." 387 F. Supp., at 1300. I said in Lemon I, supra, at 659-660:
". . . I do not believe that [direct] grants to such a sectarian institution are permissible. The reason is not that religion `permeates' the secular education that is provided. Rather, it is that the secular education is provided within the environment of religion; the institution is dedicated to two goals, secular education and religious instruction. When aid flows directly to the institution, both functions benefit." (Emphasis in original.)
Unlike Judge Bryan, 387 F. Supp., at 1300, I would also reverse the District Court's denial of appellants' motion that the appellee institutions be required to refund all payments made to them. I adhere to the views expressed in Mr. Justice Douglas' dissent, which I joined, in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 411 U.S. 192, 209 (1973) ( Lemon II):
I would reverse the judgment of the District Court and remand with directions to enter a new judgment permanently enjoining the Board of Public Works of the State of Maryland from implementing the Maryland Act, and requiring the appellee institutions to refund all payments made to them pursuant to the Act.
In my view, the decisive differences between this case and Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672, lie in the nature of the theology courses that are a compulsory part of the curriculum at each of the appellee institutions and the type of governmental assistance provided to these church-affiliated colleges. In Tilton the Court emphasized that the theology courses were taught as academic subjects.
"[T]he hiring patterns for religion or theology departments are a special case and present a unique problem. All five defendants staff their religion or theology departments chiefly with clerics of the affiliated church. At two defendants, Western Maryland and Mt. St. Mary's, all members of the religion or theology faculty are clerics. The problem presented by the make-up of these departments is obvious. Recognition of the academic freedom of these instructors does not necessarily lead to a conclusion that courses in the religion or theology departments at the five defendants have no overtones of indoctrination.
In light of these findings, I cannot agree with the plurality's assertion that there is "no constitutionally significant distinction" between the colleges in Tilton and those in the present case. Ante, at 759. The findings in Tilton clearly established that the federal building-construction grants benefited academic institutions that made no attempt to inculcate the religious beliefs of the affiliated church. In the present case, by contrast, the compulsory theology courses may be "devoted to deepening religious experiences in the particular faith rather than to teaching theology as an academic discipline." 387 F. Supp., at 1288. In view of this salient characteristic of the appellee institutions and the noncategorical grants provided to them by the State of Maryland, I agree with the conclusion of the dissenting member of the three-judge court that the challenged Act " in these instances does in truth offend the Constitution by its provisions of funds, in that it exposes State money for use in advancing religion, no matter the vigilance to avoid it." Id., at 1298 (emphasis in original).