Supreme Court Appears to Side With a Church in a Funding Battle

NEIL GORSUCH sat silently through much of his first oral argument on April 19th in a constitutional case, a church-state battle over funding for pre-school playgrounds in Missouri. But a string of questions he posed to the state's lawyer just before the end of the hour-long hearing suggests the 113th justice is sympathetic to Trinity Lutheran Church's claim that its rights were violated when, in 2012, Missouri rejected its bid for a grant to resurface its day-care centre's playground with used tire scraps. As our preview of the case noted, Trinity Lutheran's application for the programme was denied, despite being highly rated, because Missouri's constitution bars state funds from flowing, directly or indirectly, “in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion”.