AJC Disappointed, Yet Also Relieved, Over Supreme Court Decision In Agostini V. Felton

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 23 June 1997

Robert S. Rifkind, President of the American Jewish Committee, issued the following statement in response to today's decision by the United States Supreme Court in Agostini v. Felton:

"While the American Jewish Committee is disappointed that the Court has gone as far as it did in holding that the principle of separation of church and state is not violated when a local school district provides religious school students with 'supplementary' classes in public schools, we are relieved that the Court appears to have left in place its long-time tripartite standard for determining whether the state has impermissibly violated the constitutional prohibition on government establishment of religion.

"In a brief filed earlier this year, AJC joined with nine other national organizations to argue that if the Court were to revisit its 1985 decision in Aguilar v. Felton, it should do so without abandoning either the requirement that government action not excessively entangle religion and state or other core aspects of church-state doctrine, and that it should only allow on-site instruction by public school teachers at a religious school if there were sufficient safeguards to assure secular control of the program.

"The Court has, it appears, left the excessive entanglement test in place, together with the requirements that government action must serve a secular purpose and may not have the effect of advancing religion. That is the good news. The bad news is that the Court went further than it need have, setting aside part of its decision in Grand Rapids v. Ball, another case involving public school teachers providing instruction in religious schools; that the Court chose to do so poses at least some question as to how the test will be applied in the future. "The implications of today's mixed-bag decision remain to be seen. But today's decision ought not be read as opening the door broadly to public subsidy of religious organizations. In particular, it is not an invitation to adopt parochial school vouchers."

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