The simplest way, it would seem, for the government to avoid infringing on religious liberty or risking entanglement with religion is to avoid taking religion into account at all. Yet this is often difficult; churches and schools seek grants, individuals desire government benefits, and the state must ultimately balance accommodating religious pluralism and religious freedom with neutrality and nonentanglement. Recently, in St. Augustine School v. Evers, the Seventh Circuit found that Wisconsin state actors did not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses in denying publicly funded busing to the students of a religious private school. The court held that the Superintendent and school district, acting pursuant to a Wisconsin statute, had not granted or denied benefits based on nonneutral religious criteria, nor had they impermissibly examined the school’s religious beliefs. The court’s resolution of the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims ignores crucial free exercise and entanglement concerns arising from the state’s inquiry into religious affiliation, an inquiry rendered inevitable by the statute. The best way to avert future constitutional quandaries may be for the legislature to begin anew.
Read the case comment here:
https://harvardlawreview.org/2019/06/st-augustine-school-v-evers/
