Washington, D.C. | In his first week on the bench, new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch heard what many Court watchers have said could be the most important case of this term, and an important matter in the realm of church-state separation.
The justices heard oral arguments April 19 on what has been dubbed “the Playground Case,” which involves a church-owned preschool’s fight to participate in a state grant program.
Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Mo., sued the state after its preschool was denied participation in a program that funds safer recreation spaces for kids. (Trinity’s playground is gravel, but operators wanted to replace it with a rubberized surface made from recycled tires.) The preschool was denied funding, even though it ranked fifth out of 44 applicants, and 14 received grants, USA Today reported. Missouri is one of more than 30 states with laws prohibiting religious institutions from receiving public money.
After the Court heard the arguments, multiple media outlets reported that even some liberal-leaning justices appeared to side with the preschool’s right to participate in the program. According to USA Today, concerns raised by Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer could result in a 7-2 decision in favor of the preschool (should conservatives Gorsuch, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito move in the expected direction). However, the paper reported, the Court could rule “on narrow grounds, so as not to set a broad, nationwide precedent on public funding for religious institutions.”
It’s also possible the Court could rule the case moot after Missouri Governor Eric Greitens instructed the state’s Department of Natural Resources to allow churches to apply for and receive funding from state grant programs.
Prior to oral arguments, the case was thought to be an issue on which new Associate Justice Gorsuch would help shift the Court toward the school’s side. Gorsuch, formerly an appellate judge in Colorado, ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in the company’s fight over the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that corporations cover birth control—including drugs such as Plan B and Ella—in their employee health care plans. He was confirmed by the Senate April 7 after Republicans invoked the so-called “nuclear option,” so that only a simple majority was needed to proceed with the nomination.