After Trinity Lutheran, a state court case looks at public funds being given to churches
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Missouri case may affect a court in New Jersey looking at similar questions of church-state separation.
A friend-of-the-court brief filed July 17 in New Jersey says the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a Missouri Lutheran church’s right to participate in a taxpayer-funded playground safety program “has significant implications” for other states with constitutions that bar the use of public funds to support religious groups.
The Becket Fund, which describes itself as a nonprofit, public-interest law firm defending religious liberty, says a case headed toward the New Jersey Supreme Court, Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Morris County Board of Freeholders, presents one of the first opportunities for a state supreme court to interpret the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer.
In the latter case, justices decided by a 7-2 margin that a religious congregation could not be excluded from a program open to other nonprofits, despite a clause in the Missouri constitution barring the use of public money “in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion.”
