Court Permits Funding Based on Faith

Chief Justice John Roberts has, over the years, shown flashes of judicious, even-handed decision making, most recently in cases involving abortion, gay and immigrant rights. However, his majority opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which strikes down state constitutional prohibitions against use of government funding aiding churches or sectarian purposes, demonstrates his continuing notion that the First Amendment separation of church and state was intended not to keep religion out of  governance but to insure that proponents of religion can obtain public funding to promote their beliefs. Thus, he has written that excluding a church from a public benefit “ is odious to our Constitution “.
That is the same sort of twisted logic that led Justice Roberts to invalidate a key provision of the Civil Rights Act which was enacted to prevent states from perpetuating race-based obstacles to the free exercise of rights by all citizens regardless of color. Justice Roberts essentially labeled that protection a form of discrimination when he disingenuously wrote that the best way to end discrimination is to stop discriminating.
Progressives should harbor no more than a modicum of hope for the direction of Justice Roberts’ future pronouncements.