Mitchell v. Helms

Background

The federal Chapter 2 program sends money to state and local education agencies to buy and lend instructional materials and equipment to schools. Local districts allocate aid based on each school's enrollment. In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, about 46 private schools participated and 34 were Roman Catholic. Parents and public-school plaintiffs sued in 1985, claiming the loans of books, computers, projectors, and other items improperly advanced religion; the litigation went through several courts over fifteen years.

Reasoning

The Justices reviewed Chapter 2 using the Court's post-Agostini test focused on effect, not purpose. The majority found the program neutral and secular in content, allocated by per-pupil rules, and administered so that public agencies retain title and control. Because aid reached religious schools only through private choices of parents and because the materials were secular, the Court concluded that any religious instruction could not be fairly attributed to the government. The Court therefore upheld Chapter 2 and overruled earlier cases (Meek and Wolman) that had treated many in‑kind loans as automatically unconstitutional.

Real world impact

The ruling lets local and state agencies continue lending computers, software, library books, and instructional equipment to religiously affiliated private schools under Chapter 2 rules. It changes the legal landscape by removing a categorical bar on many forms of in‑kind school aid and shifts scrutiny to whether aid is neutral, secular, and allocated without regard to religion. The case also produced a narrower concurrence warning about diversion risks and a dissent arguing the Jefferson Parish program was applied with inadequate safeguards.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice O'Connor concurred in the judgment but cautioned about breadth and monitoring; Justice Souter dissented, stressing divertibility, evidence of actual diversion, and the pervasively sectarian nature of many local schools.