Court Opinion

ID: 9433037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:38:46.044649+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:38.879277
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice Blackmun and Justice Ginsburg join, concurring.
New York created a special school district for the members of the Satmar religious sect in response to parental concern that children suffered “‘panic, fear and trauma’” when “ ‘leaving their own community and being with people whose ways were so different.’ ” Ante, at 692. To meet those concerns, the State could have taken steps to alleviate the children’s fear by teaching their schoolmates to be tolerant and respectful of Satmar customs. Action of that kind would raise no constitutional concerns and would further the strong public interest in promoting diversity and understanding in the public schools.
Instead, the State responded with a solution that affirmatively supports a religious sect’s interest in segregating itself and preventing its children from associating with their neighbors. The isolation of these children, while it may protect them from “panic, fear and trauma,” also unquestionably increased the likelihood that they would remain within the fold, faithful adherents of their parents’ religious faith. By creating a school district that is specifically intended to shield children from contact with others who have “different ways,” the State provided official support to cement the attachment of young adherents to a particular faith. It is telling, in this regard, that two-thirds of the school’s full-time students are Hasidic handicapped children from outside the village; the Kiryas Joel school thus serves a population far wider than the village — one defined less by geography than by religion. See ante, at 694, 701-702, n. 5.
Affirmative state action in aid of segregation of this character is unlike the evenhanded distribution of a public benefit or service, a “release time” program for public school students involving no public premises or funds, or a decision to *712grant an exemption from a burdensome general rule. It is, I believe, fairly characterized as establishing, rather than merely accommodating, religion. For this reason, as well as the reasons set out in Justice Souter’s opinion, I am persuaded that the New York law at issue in these cases violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.