Task: sc_issuearea

What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states.

We granted certiorari sub nom. Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley, 577 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 891, 193 L.Ed.2d 784 (2016), and now reverse.
II
The First Amendment provides, in part, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The parties agree that the Establishment Clause of that Amendment does not prevent Missouri from including Trinity Lutheran in the Scrap Tire Program. That does not, however, answer the question under the Free Exercise Clause, because we have recognized that there is "play in the joints" between what the Establishment Clause permits and the Free Exercise Clause compels. Locke, 540 U.S., at 718, 124 S.Ct. 1307 (internal quotation marks omitted).
The Free Exercise Clause "protect[s] religious observers against unequal treatment" and subjects to the strictest scrutiny laws that target the religious for "special disabilities" based on their "religious status." Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 533, 542, 113 S.Ct. 2217, 124 L.Ed.2d 472 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). Applying that basic principle, this Court has repeatedly confirmed that denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that can be justified only by a state interest "of the highest order." McDaniel v. Paty, 435 U.S. 618, 628, 98 S.Ct. 1322, 55 L.Ed.2d 593 (1978) (plurality opinion) (quoting Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 215, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972) ).
In Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947), for example, we upheld against an Establishment Clause challenge a New Jersey law enabling a local school district to reimburse parents for the public transportation costs of sending their children to public and private schools, including parochial schools. In the course of ruling that the Establishment Clause allowed New Jersey to extend that public benefit to all its citizens regardless of their religious belief, we explained that a State "cannot hamper its citizens in the free exercise of their own religion. Consequently, it cannot exclude individual Catholics, Lutherans, Mohammedans, Baptists, Jews, Methodists, Non-believers, Presbyterians, or the members of any other faith, because of their faith, or lack of it, from receiving the benefits of public welfare legislation." Id., at 16, 67 S.Ct. 504.
Three decades later, in McDaniel v. Paty, the Court struck down under the Free Exercise Clause a Tennessee statute disqualifying ministers from serving as delegates to the State's constitutional convention. Writing for the plurality, Chief Justice Burger acknowledged that Tennessee had disqualified ministers from serving as legislators since the adoption of its first Constitution in 1796, and that a number of early States had also disqualified ministers from legislative office. This historical tradition, however, did not change the fact that the statute discriminated against McDaniel by denying him a benefit solely because of his "status as a'minister.' " 435 U.S., at 627, 98 S.Ct. 1322. McDaniel could not seek to participate in the convention while also maintaining his role as a minister; to pursue the one, he would have to give up the other. In this way, said Chief Justice Burger, the Tennessee law "effectively penalizes the free exercise of [McDaniel's] constitutional liberties." Id., at 626, 98 S.Ct. 1322 (quoting Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 406, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963) ; internal quotation marks omitted). Joined by Justice Marshall in concurrence, Justice Brennan added that "because the challenged provision requires [McDaniel] to purchase his right to engage in the ministry by sacrificing his candidacy it impairs the free exercise of his religion." McDaniel, 435 U.S., at 634, 98 S.Ct. 1322.
In recent years, when this Court has rejected free exercise challenges, the laws in question have been neutral and generally applicable without regard to religion. We have been careful to distinguish such laws from those that single out the religious for disfavored treatment.
For example, in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, 485 U.S. 439, 108 S.Ct. 1319, 99 L.Ed.2d 534 (1988), we held that the Free Exercise Clause did not prohibit the Government from timber harvesting or road construction on a particular tract of federal land, even though the Government's action would obstruct the religious practice of several Native American Tribes that held certain sites on the tract to be sacred. Accepting that "[t]he building of a road or the harvesting of timber... would interfere significantly with private persons' ability to pursue spiritual fulfillment according to their own religious beliefs," we nonetheless found no free exercise violation, because the affected individuals were not being "coerced by the Government's action into violating their religious beliefs." Id., at 449, 108 S.Ct. 1319. The Court specifically noted, however, that the Government action did not "penalize religious activity by denying any person an equal share of the rights, benefits, and privileges enjoyed by other citizens." Ibid.
In Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990), we rejected a free exercise claim brought by two members of a Native American church denied unemployment benefits because they had violated Oregon's drug laws by ingesting peyote for sacramental purposes. Along the same lines as our decision in Lyng, we held that the Free Exercise Clause did not entitle the church members to a special dispensation from the general criminal laws on account of their religion. At the same time, we again made clear that the Free Exercise Clause did guard against the government's imposition of "special disabilities on the basis of religious views or religious status." 494 U.S., at 877, 110 S.Ct. 1595 (citing McDaniel, 435 U.S. 618, 98 S.Ct. 1322, 55 L.Ed.2d 593 ).
Finally, in Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, we struck down three facially neutral city ordinances that outlawed certain forms of animal slaughter. Members of the Santeria religion challenged the ordinances under the Free Exercise Clause, alleging that despite their facial neutrality, the ordinances had a discriminatory purpose easy to ferret out: prohibiting sacrificial rituals integral to Santeria but distasteful to local residents. We agreed. Before explaining why the challenged ordinances were not, in fact, neutral or generally applicable, the Court recounted the fundamentals of our free exercise jurisprudence. A law, we said, may not discriminate against "some or all religious beliefs." 508 U.S., at 532, 113 S.Ct. 2217. Nor may a law regulate or outlaw conduct because it is religiously motivated. And, citing McDaniel and Smith, we restated the now-familiar refrain: The Free Exercise Clause protects against laws that " 'impose[ ] special disabilities on the basis of... religious status.' " 508 U.S., at 533, 113 S.Ct. 2217 (quoting Smith, 494 U.S., at 877, 110 S.Ct. 1595 ); see also Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 828, 120 S.Ct. 2530, 147 L.Ed.2d 660 (2000) (plurality opinion) (noting "our decisions that have prohibited governments from discriminating in the distribution of public benefits based upon religious status or sincerity" (citing Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995) ; Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 508 U.S. 384, 113 S.Ct. 2141, 124 L.Ed.2d 352 (1993) ; Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 102 S.Ct. 269, 70 L.Ed.2d 440 (1981) )).
III
A
The Department's policy expressly discriminates against otherwise eligible recipients by disqualifying them from a public benefit solely because of their religious character. If the cases just described make one thing clear, it is that such a policy imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that triggers the most exacting scrutiny. Lukumi, 508 U.S., at 546, 113 S.Ct. 2217. This conclusion is unremarkable in light of our prior decisions.
Like the disqualification statute in McDaniel, the Department's policy puts Trinity Lutheran to a choice: It may participate in an otherwise available benefit program or remain a religious institution. Of course, Trinity Lutheran is free to continue operating as a church, just as McDaniel was free to continue being a minister. But that freedom comes at the cost of automatic and absolute exclusion from the benefits of a public program for which the Center is otherwise fully qualified. And when the State conditions a benefit in this way, McDaniel says plainly that the State has punished the free exercise of religion: "To condition the availability of benefits... upon [a recipient's] willingness to... surrender[ ] his religiously impelled [status] effectively penalizes the free exercise of his constitutional liberties." 435 U.S., at 626, 98 S.Ct. 1322 (plurality opinion) (alterations omitted).
The Department contends that merely declining to extend funds to Trinity Lutheran does not prohibit the Church from engaging in any religious conduct or otherwise exercising its religious rights. In this sense, says the Department, its policy is unlike the ordinances struck down in Lukumi, which outlawed rituals central to Santeria. Here the Department has simply declined to allocate to Trinity Lutheran a subsidy the State had no obligation to provide in the first place. That decision does not meaningfully burden the Church's free exercise rights. And absent any such burden, the argument continues, the Department is free to heed the State's antiestablishment objection to providing funds directly to a church. Brief for Respondent 7-12, 14-16.
It is true the Department has not criminalized the way Trinity Lutheran worships or told the Church that it cannot subscribe to a certain view of the Gospel. But, as the Department itself acknowledges, the Free Exercise Clause protects against "indirect coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion, not just outright prohibitions." Lyng, 485 U.S., at 450, 108 S.Ct. 1319. As the Court put it more than 50 years ago, "[i]t is too late in the day to doubt that the liberties of religion and expression may be infringed by the denial of or placing of conditions upon a benefit or privilege." Sherbert, 374 U.S., at 404, 83 S.Ct. 1790 ; see also McDaniel, 435 U.S., at 633, 98 S.Ct. 1322 (Brennan, J., concurring in judgment) (The "proposition-that the law does not interfere with free exercise because it does not directly prohibit religious activity, but merely conditions eligibility for office on its abandonment-is... squarely rejected by precedent").
Trinity Lutheran is not claiming any entitlement to a subsidy. It instead asserts a right to participate in a government benefit program without having to disavow its religious character. The "imposition of such a condition upon even a gratuitous benefit inevitably deter[s] or discourage[s] the exercise of First Amendment rights." Sherbert, 374 U.S., at 405, 83 S.Ct. 1790. The express discrimination against religious exercise here is not the denial of a grant, but rather the refusal to allow the Church-solely because it is a church-to compete with secular organizations for a grant. Cf. Northeastern Fla. Chapter, Associated Gen. Contractors of America v. Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656, 666, 113 S.Ct. 2297, 124 L.Ed.2d 586 (1993) ( "[T]he 'injury in fact' is the inability to compete on an equal footing in the bidding process, not the loss of a contract"). Trinity Lutheran is a member of the community too, and the State's decision to exclude it for purposes of this public program must withstand the strictest scrutiny.
B
The Department attempts to get out from under the weight of our precedents by arguing that the free exercise question in this case is instead controlled by our decision in Locke v. Davey. It is not. In Locke, the State of Washington created a scholarship program to assist high-achieving students with the costs of postsecondary education. The scholarships were paid out of the State's general fund, and eligibility was based on criteria such as an applicant's score on college admission tests and family income. While scholarship recipients were free to use the money at accredited religious and non-religious schools alike, they were not permitted to use the funds to pursue a devotional theology degree-one "devotional in nature or designed to induce religious faith." 540 U.S., at 716, 124 S.Ct. 1307 (internal quotation marks omitted). Davey was selected for a scholarship but was denied the funds when he refused to certify that he would not use them toward a devotional degree. He sued, arguing that the State's refusal to allow its scholarship money to go toward such degrees violated his free exercise rights.
This Court disagreed. It began by explaining what was not at issue. Washington's selective funding program was not comparable to the free exercise violations found in the "Lukumi line of cases," including those striking down laws requiring individuals to "choose between their religious beliefs and receiving a government benefit." Id., at 720-721, 124 S.Ct. 1307. At the outset, then, the Court made clear that Locke was not like the case now before us.
Washington's restriction on the use of its scholarship funds was different. According to the Court, the State had "merely chosen not to fund a distinct category of instruction." Id., at 721, 124 S.Ct. 1307. Davey was not denied a scholarship because of who he was ; he was denied a scholarship because of what he proposed to do -use the funds to prepare for the ministry. Here there is no question that Trinity Lutheran was denied a grant simply because of what it is-a church.
The Court in Locke also stated that Washington's choice was in keeping with the State's antiestablishment interest in not using taxpayer funds to pay for the training of clergy; in fact, the Court could "think of few areas in which a State's antiestablishment interests come more into play." Id., at 722, 124 S.Ct. 1307. The claimant in Locke sought funding for an "essentially religious endeavor... akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit," and opposition to such funding "to support church leaders" lay at the historic core of the Religion Clauses. Id., at 721-722, 124 S.Ct. 1307. Here nothing of the sort can be said about a program to use recycled tires to resurface playgrounds.
Relying on Locke, the Department nonetheless emphasizes Missouri's similar constitutional tradition of not furnishing taxpayer money directly to churches. Brief for Respondent 15-16. But Locke took account of Washington's antiestablishment interest only after determining, as noted, that the scholarship program did not "require students to choose between their religious beliefs and receiving a government benefit." 540 U.S., at 720-721, 124 S.Ct. 1307 (citing McDaniel, 435 U.S. 618, 98 S.Ct. 1322, 55 L.Ed.2d 593 ). As the Court put it, Washington's scholarship program went "a long way toward including religion in its benefits." Locke, 540 U.S., at 724, 124 S.Ct. 1307. Students in the program were free to use their scholarships at "pervasively religious schools." Ibid. Davey could use his scholarship to pursue a secular degree at one institution while studying devotional theology at another. Id., at 721, n. 4, 124 S.Ct. 1307. He could also use his scholarship money to attend a religious college and take devotional theology courses there.
Id., at 725, 124 S.Ct. 1307. The only thing he could not do was use the scholarship to pursue a degree in that subject.
In this case, there is no dispute that Trinity Lutheran is put to the choice between being a church and receiving a government benefit. The rule is simple: No churches need apply.
C
The State in this case expressly requires Trinity Lutheran to renounce its religious character in order to participate in an otherwise generally available public benefit program, for which it is fully qualified. Our cases make clear that such a condition imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that must be subjected to the "most rigorous" scrutiny. Lukumi, 508 U.S., at 546, 113 S.Ct. 2217.
Under that stringent standard, only a state interest "of the highest order" can justify the Department's discriminatory policy. McDaniel, 435 U.S., at 628, 98 S.Ct. 1322 (internal quotation marks omitted). Yet the Department offers nothing more than Missouri's policy preference for skating as far as possible from religious establishment concerns. Brief for Respondent 15-16. In the face of the clear infringement on free exercise before us, that interest cannot qualify as compelling. As we said when considering Missouri's same policy preference on a prior occasion, "the state interest asserted here-in achieving greater separation of church and State than is already ensured under the Establishment Clause of the Federal Constitution-is limited by the Free Exercise Clause." Widmar, 454 U.S., at 276, 102 S.Ct. 269.
The State has pursued its preferred policy to the point of expressly denying a qualified religious entity a public benefit solely because of its religious character. Under our precedents, that goes too far. The Department's policy violates the Free Exercise Clause.
Nearly 200 years ago, a legislator urged the Maryland Assembly to adopt a bill that would end the State's disqualification of Jews from public office:
"If, on account of my religious faith, I am subjected to disqualifications, from which others are free,... I cannot but consider myself a persecuted man.... An odious exclusion from any of the benefits common to the rest of my fellow-citizens, is a persecution, differing only in degree, but of a nature equally unjustifiable with that, whose instruments are chains and torture." Speech by H.M. Brackenridge, Dec. Sess. 1818, in H. Brackenridge, W. Worthington, & J. Tyson, Speeches in the House of Delegates of Maryland, 64 (1829).
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has not subjected anyone to chains or torture on account of religion. And the result of the State's policy is nothing so dramatic as the denial of political office. The consequence is, in all likelihood, a few extra scraped knees. But the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand.
The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice THOMAS, with whom Justice GORSUCH joins, concurring in part.
The Court today reaffirms that "denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that can be justified," if at all, "only by a state interest 'of the highest order.' " Ante, at 2019. The Free Exercise Clause, which generally prohibits laws that facially discriminate against religion, compels this conclusion. See Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712, 726-727, 124 S.Ct. 1307, 158 L.Ed.2d 1 (2004) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
Despite this prohibition, the Court in Locke permitted a State to "disfavor... religion" by imposing what it deemed a "relatively minor" burden on religious exercise to advance the State's antiestablishment "interest in not funding the religious training of clergy." Id., at 720, 722, n. 5, 725, 124 S.Ct. 1307. The Court justified this law based on its view that there is " 'play in the joints' " between the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause-that is, that "there are some state actions permitted by the Establishment Clause but not required by the Free Exercise Clause." Id., at 719, 124 S.Ct. 1307. Accordingly, Locke did not subject the law at issue to any form of heightened scrutiny. But it also did not suggest that discrimination against religion outside the limited context of support for ministerial training would be similarly exempt from exacting review.
This Court's endorsement in Locke of even a "mil[d] kind," id., at 720, 124 S.Ct. 1307 of discrimination against religion remains troubling. See generally id., at 726-734, 124 S.Ct. 1307 (Scalia, J., dissenting). But because the Court today appropriately construes Locke narrowly, see Part III-B, ante, and because no party has asked us to reconsider it, I join nearly all of the Court's opinion. I do not, however, join footnote 3, for the reasons expressed by Justice GORSUCH, post, p. 2025 (opinion concurring in part).
Justice GORSUCH, with whom Justice THOMAS joins, concurring in part.
Missouri's law bars Trinity Lutheran from participating in a public benefits program only because it is a church. I agree this violates the First Amendment and I am pleased to join nearly all of the Court's opinion. I offer only two modest qualifications.
First, the Court leaves open the possibility a useful distinction might be drawn between laws that discriminate on the basis of religious status and religious use. Seeante, at 2022 - 2023. Respectfully, I harbor doubts about the stability of such a line. Does a religious man say grace before dinner? Or does a man begin his meal in a religious manner? Is it a religious group that built the playground? Or did a group build the playground so it might be used to advance a religious mission? The distinction blurs in much the same way the line between acts and omissions can blur when stared at too long, leaving us to ask (for example) whether the man who drowns by awaiting the incoming tide does so by act (coming upon the sea) or omission (allowing the sea to come upon him). See Cruzan v. Director, Mo. Dept. of Health, 497 U.S. 261, 296, 110 S.Ct. 2841, 111 L.Ed.2d 224 (1990) (Scalia, J., dissenting). Often enough the same facts can be described both ways.
Neither do I see why the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause should care. After all, that Clause guarantees the free exercise of religion, not just the right to inward belief (or status). Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 877, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990). And this Court has long explained that government may not "devise mechanisms, overt or disguised, designed to persecute or oppress a religion or its practices." Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 547, 113 S.Ct. 2217, 124 L.Ed.2d 472 (1993). Generally the government may not force people to choose between participation in a public program and their right to free exercise of religion. See Thomas v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Security Div., 450 U.S. 707, 716, 101 S.Ct. 1425, 67 L.Ed.2d 624 (1981) ; Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing, 330 U.S. 1, 16, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947). I don't see why it should matter whether we describe that benefit, say, as closed to Lutherans (status) or closed to people who do Lutheran things (use). It is free exercise either way.
For these reasons, reliance on the status-use distinction does not suffice for me to distinguish Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712, 124 S.Ct. 1307, 158 L.Ed.2d 1 (2004). See ante, at 2022 - 2023. In that case, this Court upheld a funding restriction barring a student from using a scholarship to pursue a degree in devotional theology. But can it really matter whether the restriction in Locke was phrased in terms of use instead of status (for was it a student who wanted a vocational degree in religion? or was it a religious student who wanted the necessary education for his chosen vocation?). If that case can be correct and distinguished, it seems it might be only because of the opinion's claim of a long tradition against the use of public funds for training of the clergy, a tradition the Court correctly explains has no analogue here. Ante, at 2023 - 2024.
Second and for similar reasons, I am unable to join the footnoted observation, ante, at 2024, n. 3, that "[t]his case involves express discrimination based on religious identity with respect to playground resurfacing." Of course the footnote is entirely correct, but I worry that some might mistakenly read it to suggest that only "playground resurfacing" cases, or only those with some association with children's safety or health, or perhaps some other social good we find sufficiently worthy, are governed by the legal rules recounted in and faithfully applied by the Court's opinion. Such a reading would be unreasonable for our cases are "governed by general principles, rather than ad hoc improvisations." Elk Grove Unified School Dist. v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1, 25, 124 S.Ct. 2301, 159 L.Ed.2d 98 (2004) (Rehnquist, C. J., concurring in judgment). And the general principles here do not permit discrimination against religious exercise-whether on the playground or anywhere else.
Justice BREYER, concurring in the judgment.
I agree with much of what the Court says and with its result. But I find relevant, and would emphasize, the particular nature of the "public benefit" here at issue. Cf. ante, at 2022 ("Trinity Lutheran... asserts a right to participate in a government benefit program"); ante, at 2023 (referring to precedent "striking down laws requiring individuals to choose between their religious beliefs and receiving a government benefit" (internal quotation marks omitted)); ante, at 2022 (referring to Trinity Lutheran's "automatic and absolute exclusion from the benefits of a public program"); ante, at 2021 (the State's policy disqualifies "otherwise eligible recipients... from a public benefit solely because of their religious character"); ante, at 2020 (quoting the statement in Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing, 330 U.S. 1, 16, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947), that the State "cannot exclude" individuals "because of their faith " from "receiving the benefits of public welfare legislation").
The Court stated in Everson that "cutting off church schools from" such "general government services as ordinary police and fire protection... is obviously not the purpose of the First Amendment." 330 U.S., at 17-18, 67 S.Ct. 504. Here, the State would cut Trinity Lutheran off from participation in a general program designed to secure or to improve the health and safety of children. I see no significant difference. The fact that the program at issue ultimately funds only a limited number of projects cannot itself justify a religious distinction. Nor is there any administrative or other reason to treat church schools differently. The sole reason advanced that explains the difference is faith. And it is that last-mentioned fact that calls the Free Exercise Clause into play. We need not go further. Public benefits come in many shapes and sizes. I would leave the application of the Free Exercise Clause to other kinds of public benefits for another day.
Justice SOTOMAYOR, with whom Justice GINSBURG joins, dissenting.
To hear the Court tell it, this is a simple case about recycling tires to resurface a playground. The stakes are higher. This case is about nothing less than the relationship between religious institutions and the civil government-that is, between church and state. The Court today profoundly changes that relationship by holding, for the first time, that the Constitution requires the government to provide public funds directly to a church. Its decision slights both our precedents and our history, and its reasoning weakens this country's longstanding commitment to a separation of church and state beneficial to both.
I
Founded in 1922, Trinity Lutheran Church (Church) "operates... for the express purpose of carrying out the commission of... Jesus Christ as directed to His church on earth." Our Story, http://www.trinity-lcms.org/story (all internet materials as last visited June 22, 2017). The Church uses "preaching, teaching, worship, witness, service, and fellowship according to the Word of God" to carry out its mission "to'make disciples.' " Mission, http://www.trinity-lcms.org/mission (quoting Matthew 28:18-20). The Church's religious beliefs include its desire to "associat[e] with the [Trinity Church Child] Learning Center." App. to Pet. for Cert. 101a. Located on Church property, the Learning Center provides daycare and preschool for about "90 children ages two to kindergarten." Id., at 100a.
The Learning Center serves as "a ministry of the Church and incorporates daily religion and developmentally appropriate activities into... [its] program." Id., at 101a. In this way, "[t]hrough the Learning Center, the Church teaches a Christian world view to children of members of the Church, as well as children of non-member residents" of the area. Ibid. These activities represent the Church's "sincere religious belief... to use [the Learning Center] to teach the Gospel to children of its members, as well to bring the Gospel message to non-members." Ibid.
The Learning Center's facilities include a playground, the unlikely source of this dispute. The Church provides the playground and other "safe, clean, and attractive" facilities "in conjunction with an education program structured to allow a child to grow spiritually, physically, socially, and cognitively." Ibid. This case began in 2012 when the Church applied for funding to upgrade the playground's pea gravel and grass surface through Missouri's Scrap Tire Program, which provides grants for the purchase and installation of recycled tire material to resurface playgrounds. The Church sought $20,000 for a $30,580 project to modernize the playground, part of its effort to gain state accreditation for the Learning Center as an early childhood education program. Missouri denied the Church funding based on Article I, § 7, of its State Constitution, which prohibits the use of public funds "in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion."
II
Properly understood then, this is a case about whether Missouri can decline to fund improvements to the facilities the Church uses to practice and spread its religious views. This Court has repeatedly warned that funding of exactly this kind-payments from the government to a house of worship-would cross the line drawn by the Establishment Clause. See, e.g., Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York, 397 U.S. 664, 675, 90 S.Ct. 1409, 25 L.Ed.2d 697 (1970) ; Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 844, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995) ; Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 843-844, 120 S.Ct. 2530, 147 L.Ed.2d 660 (2000) (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment). So it is surprising that the Court mentions the Establishment Clause only to note the parties' agreement that it "does not prevent Missouri from including Trinity Lutheran in the Scrap Tire Program." Ante, at 2019. Constitutional questions are decided by this Court, not the parties' concessions. The Establishment Clause does not allow Missouri to grant the Church's funding request because the Church uses the Learning Center, including its playground, in conjunction with its religious mission. The Court's silence on this front signals either its misunderstanding of the facts of this case or a startling departure from our precedents.
A
The government may not directly fund religious exercise. See Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing, 330 U.S. 1, 16, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947) ; Mitchell, 530 U.S., at 840, 120 S.Ct. 2530 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment) ("[O]ur decisions provide no precedent for the use of public funds to finance religious activities" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Put in doctrinal terms, such funding violates the Establishment Clause because it impermissibly "advanc[es]... religion." Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 222-223, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 138 L.Ed.2d 391 (1997).
Nowhere is this rule more clearly implicated than when funds flow directly from the public treasury to a house of worship. A house of worship exists to foster and further religious exercise. There, a group of people, bound by common religious beliefs, comes together "to shape its own faith and mission." Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171, 188, 132 S.Ct. 694, 181 L.Ed.2d 650 (2012). Within its walls, worshippers gather to practice and reaffirm their faith. And from its base, the faithful reach out to those not yet convinced of the group's beliefs. When a government funds a house of worship, it underwrites this religious exercise.
Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 672, 91 S.Ct. 2091, 29 L.Ed.2d 790 (1971), held as much. The federal program at issue provided construction grants to colleges and universities but prohibited grantees from using the funds to construct facilities " 'used for sectarian instruction or as a place for religious worship' " or " 'used primarily in connection with any part of the program of a school or department

Question: What is the issue area of the decision?
A. Criminal Procedure
B. Civil Rights
C. First Amendment
D. Due Process
E. Privacy
F. Attorneys
G. Unions
H. Economic Activity
I. Judicial Power
J. Federalism
K. Interstate Relations
L. Federal Taxation
M. Miscellaneous
N. Private Action
Answer:

Answer: C