An “Unfortunate Metaphor”: The Establishment Clause Jurisprudence of the Vinson Court

Abstract

The difference between the kind of aid to all religions that the author is defending and the aid that might be regarded as a mark of “multiple establishment” may be that in the latter case the state goes out of its way to aid churches for their own sake, whereas in the former case the state finds itself involved in activities, such as education, in which the churches have a special stake and it may therefore seek to arrive at some adjustment that limits the injury to the interests for which the churches stand. Interpretations of the separation of church and state that rule out such adjustments on a priori grounds are unfair and are inimical to the free exercise of religion.1