Church, State and Education - The Washington Case

Washington State is not depriving anyone of the free exercise of religion. It is merely drawing a line, which the Supreme Court has recognized, between religious and secular education, and directing its funds to secular education. There is no right to taxpayer financing for religious studies. To hold otherwise, the court would have to contradict its own abortion-financing cases, which say that a "legislature's decision not to subsidize the exercise of a fundamental right does not infringe the right."