Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today praised a 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that religious institutions should be eligible to receive public funds for secular purposes. The case revolved around Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Missouri, which sought to participate in a state program that reimburses the cost of rubberizing playground surfaces. The state rejected the request on the grounds that Missouri’s constitution forbids the government from spending public money on “any church, sect, or denomination of religion.”
In April, Texas joined 18 states on an amicus brief filed with the high court in support of Trinity Lutheran Church. In authoring today’s opinion in the case, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “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…and cannot stand.”
In his statement on the decision, Attorney General Paxton said: “Today’s ruling is a major victory for all who believe in religious liberty. I’m pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that Missouri went too far in discriminating against an institution because of its religious character, violating Trinity Lutheran’s First Amendment protection against policies prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”