Tire Scraps and Religious Liberty: SCOTUS takes on fair play at preschool playground

The Learning Center, a preschool and daycare that merged with the Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, was denied a grant from the state of Missouri that would have provided public funds to the center to purchase recycled tires to resurface their playground. The state’s rationale for denying this grant was based on the Missouri Constitution, which states that “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, section or denomination of religion.” In May 2015, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state’s decision to deny the grant application to Trinity Church. On April 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about this case asking whether the state’s prevention of Trinity Church to have access to public funds through an otherwise general neutral funding program violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In this public program, held at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum, leading attorneys enacted a moot court arguing the pros and cons of the case. Arguing for Trinity Lutheran will be Erik Stanley, senior counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries for the Alliance Defending Freedom. Arguing for the state will be Daniel Mach, director of the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the American Civil Liberties Union. The attorneys will argue that Trinity Lutheran is a pivotal case on religious freedom and will address the reasons for and against the decision to deny a religious preschool from access to state funds for the church to be reimbursed for rubberized surface material (tire scraps) for a playground. At its core, the Trinity Lutheran playground case strikes at the heart of American jurisprudence, asking “What is fair play in a pluralistic society?” The case has piqued the interest of many legal scholars, academics, SCOTUS reporters, commentators and the general public. Last fall, Adam Liptak of The New York Times called Trinity Lutheran “the most interesting case of the term.” Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman asserted, “Regardless of the outcome, the case will be one for the history books.” To learn more about the case and to read the briefs filed by friends of the court, please visit the SCOTUSblog entry on Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer. This event was cosponsored by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute. Interested in this program? You may be interested in the web series, "5 Minutes of Religious Freedom" series by subscribing to the Newseum YouTube channel, and share on social using #5mRF and @NewseumReligion. www.religiousfreedomcenter.org @Newseumreligion www.newseuminstitute.org @NewseumInst www.newseum.org @Newseum Enroll in our graduate courses to become a constitutional and human rights specialist on issues of religion and public life. Apply for scholarships at www.ReligiousFreedomCenter.org.