How the Coming Church-State Showdown Could be Avoided

During argument in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer last week before the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan mused that the case poses “a hard issue. It's an issue in which states have their own very longstanding law. It's an issue on which I guess I'm going to say nobody is completely sure that they have it right.”

The court did not pay much attention to a question that logically flows from Kagan’s concern: Is this trip really necessary?

Does the court really need to jump into this dispute between a church and a state government—or is it a case where the two parties basically have already kissed and made up?

Missouri’s Constitution, as written in 1875 and readopted in 1945, contains that “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion.” The Missouri courts over the years have