Court Opinion

ID: 9430169
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:29:07.453478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:23.497882
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
dissenting.
I dissent for the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U. S. 38 (1985). The Court relies heavily on the principles of Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U. S. 1 (1947), and McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U. S. 203 (1948), ante, at 381-382, 390, 391, 392, but de*401dines to discuss the faulty “wall” premise upon which those cases rest. In doing so the Court blinds itself to the first 150 years’ history of the Establishment Clause.
The Court today attempts to give content to the “effects” prong of the Lemon test by holding that a “symbolic link between government and religion” creates an impermissible effect. Ante, at 385. But one wonders how the teaching of “Math Topics,” “Spanish,” and “Gymnastics,” which is struck down today, creates a greater “symbolic link” than the municipal créche upheld in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U. S. 668 (1984), or the legislative chaplain upheld in Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U. S. 783 (1983).
A most unfortunate result of this case is that to support its holding the Court, despite its disclaimers, impugns the integrity of public school teachers. Contrary to the law and the teachers’ promises, they are assumed to be eager inculcators of religious dogma, see ante, at 387-389, requiring, in the Court’s words, “ongoing inspection.” Aguilar v. Felton, post, at 412; see ante, at 387-389. Not one instance of attempted religious inculcation exists in the records of the school-aid cases decided today, even though both the Grand Rapids and New York programs have been in operation for a number of years. I would reverse.