In Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a program from Maryland that made public funds available to religiously affiliated institutions of higher education. Roemer is a relatively obscure case in the academic literature, because not a single law review article has been devoted exclusively to an analysis of the Court's judgment, even though it is cited frequently in these writings. Nevertheless, Roemer remains important, because it reinforced earlier precedent approving state and federal funding programs that are neutral on their face but provide aid to religious colleges and universities so long as such programs are not “pervasively sectarian.”

In 1971, the Supreme Court resolved Lemon v. Kurtzman, in which it struck down statutes from Pennsylvania ...