About the SCOTUS Blog
This post is a public service announcement of sorts.
I was doing some research on the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) case, Trinity Lutheran vs. Comer, and I wondered whether my readers know about the SCOTUS blog and other SCOTUS online resources.
Yes, the Supreme Court has a blog called the SCOTUS blog.
It has a search feature (top right corner), which allows one to search either blog or docket (or both by default).
For example, I entered the search term, “vouchers,” and one of the results was an April 2017 blog post on the Trinity vs. Comer case, entitled, “Argument Preview: More Than Just a Playground Dispute.” An excerpt:
[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this preview ran on August 8, 2016, as an introduction to the blog’s symposium on Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer. The post has been updated to reflect events that occurred after the post was originally published.]One year, three months, and four days after the justices originally agreed to review it, the court will finally hear oral argument in a dispute that began as a battle over a playground – or, to be precise, the surfaces of the playground at the daycare and preschool operated by a Missouri church. The church argues that its exclusion from a state program that provides grants to help nonprofits buy rubber playground surfaces violates the Constitution, because it discriminates against religious institutions. The state counters that there is no constitutional violation, because the church can still worship or run its daycare as it sees fit – the state just isn’t going to pay to resurface the playground. The two sides (and their supporters) do agree on one thing, however: The stakes in the case could be far bigger than playground surfaces.The dispute dates back to 2012, when Trinity Lutheran Church applied for a state program that reimburses nonprofits for the purchase and installation of rubber playground surfaces made from recycled tires. …Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources, which administers the playground program, ranked Trinity Lutheran’s application fifth out of the 44 that were submitted. And although the department awarded 14 grants, it denied Trinity Lutheran’s application, citing a provision of the state constitution that prohibits money from the state treasury from going “directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion.”
One can see how the outcome of his case could affect the use of public money for private school vouchers:
Supporters on both sides of the case predict that dire consequences will flowAbout the SCOTUS Blog | deutsch29: