by Tracy Gordon

The United States Supreme Court, in a new rendering on separation of church and state, has voted to allow states to withhold scholarships from students studying theology.
The court’s ruling held that the State of Washington was within its right to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister.
The holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else.
The case is a departure from recent church-state fights in which the Supreme Court has gradually allowed greater state sponsorship of religious activities.
The case has implications for President Bush’s plan to allow more church-based organisations to compete for government money. The Bush administration argued that the state was wrong to withdraw the scholarship from the student in question.
Bans on public funds for religious education, date back to the 19th century, when anti-Catholic sentiment ran high.
“It imposes neither criminal nor civil sanctions on any type of religious service or rite,” said the high court majority.
“It does not deny to ministers the right to participate in the political affairs of the community. And it does not require students to choose between their religious beliefs and receiving a government benefit. The state has merely chosen not to fund a distinct category of instruction.”
However, one of the two men who dissented, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, commented, “Let there be no doubt: this case is about discrimination against a religious minority.”
“In an era when the court is so quick to come to the aid of other disfavoured groups, its indifference in this case, which involves a form of discrimination to which the Constitution actually speaks, is exceptional.”