Establishment Clause appeasement and Christian schools: The Roberts Court, religious equality, and democratic community

The religion clauses of the First Amendment to the US Constitution were designed to protect equality among Americans of all faiths. For much of the 20th century, jurists understood the clauses as in productive tension with one another. However, the Roberts Court’s current approach toward the Establishment Clause is best characterized as appeasement. This essay examines the argument strategies that underlie this appeasement with respect to a series of cases that expanded the permissibility of government funding for religious schools. Beginning with Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer (2017), the Court’s jurisprudence has evolved toward an extreme accommodationist approach to the religion clauses. Should this pattern continue, American ideals of pluralism, religious equality and democratic community may be irreparably undermined.