SCOTUS don't know us

1. What issue is at the center of both the Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza cases?Both cases ask whether states may subsidize secular private education without also subsidizing religious education. Most times SCOTUS rules with allowing subsidies.

2. How does Justice Kagan argue that banning ALL funding to religious institutions would be ridiculous?
She was saying that withdrawing all aid is ridiculous because that means the government can't help at all, so if a church were on fire, the fire department would be required to let it burn.

3. What choice do the plaintiffs argue that these bans force on students?The student may be forced to choose between attending a school that accords with her beliefs or receiving thousands of dollars in government benefits.

4. According to the Census, what's the average amount that states spend on each public school student?According to US Census data, states spend an average of $11, 392 per year on each public school student.

​5. How did Chief Justice John Roberts explain the Court's decision in Trinity Lutheran?“Denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that can be justified only by a state interest ‘of the highest order.'”

6. Because of the current makeup of the court, how do the authors predict that the Court will settle the Espinoza case?

They believe the point will be ruled as moot because there’s little chance that a conservative Supreme Court (that appears eager to expand the rights of religious conservatives) is going to hold that cases like Espinoza are too hard to decide. 

7. What issue is at the heart of both of these Pennsylvania cases?
Both cases deal with the Trump administration’s rulings allowing virtually any employer to deny birth control coverage to its employees.

8. What court precedent was established in the 1982 case US v Lee?“when followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.”-US v Lee (1982)

9. How did the Trump Administration expand the effects of the ruling in the Hobby Lobby case?
Hobby Lobby case said the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows many employers that object to birth control to offer health plans that do not include contraceptive coverage. So, under this indirect approach, an employer could “self-certify that it opposes providing coverage for particular contraceptive services.”


10. How do Trump's additions to the Court help predict the outcome of these cases?
President Trump’s election, and the appointment of archconservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court’s vacant seat, seemed to ensure that conservatives would prevail.