The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to consider Trinity Lutheran Church v Pauley, a case involving whether the state of Missouri violated the Constitution when it denied the Trinity Lutheran Church’s application for Missouri’s Scrap Tire Grant Program so that it could resurface its playground. The Court’s decision should resolve a circuit split regarding whether the Supreme Court’s ruling in Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), justifies the exclusion of religion from a neutral aid program where no valid Establishment Clause concern exists.
