Brief Fact Summary. The Appellants, Roemer and three other Maryland taxpayers (Appellants), brought suit seeking a declaration of a State statute’s invalidity under the Establishment Clause because it seeks to grant funds to private colleges, some of which are religiously affiliated.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. This case follows in the line of Agostini and Mitchell. The Establishment Clause will not invalidate a statute, which seeks to allocate funds to religious educational institutions, provided there is no evidence of misuse of the funds.
Issue. This case considers whether funds, ear-marked as grants for institutions of higher education, must necessarily be withheld from institutions that are religiously affiliated.
Held. Affirmed.
In agreeing with the District Court, the Supreme Court gave deference to its findings that funds will not necessarily become entangled merely by presentment to religiously-affiliated institutions.
Aid normally may be thought to have a primary effect of advancing religion when it flows to an institution in which religion is so pervasive that a substantial portion of its functions are subsumed in the religious mission or when it funds a specifically religious activity in an otherwise substantially secular setting.
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