Tilton v. Richardson

Facts of the Case

Tilton involved a challenge by taxpayers to Title I of the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, which made available grants to colleges and universities, including those that are religiously affiliated, in order to construct buildings and facilities that are used exclusively for secular educational purposes. The taxpayers objected to grants to four institutions in Connecticut, all of which were religiously affiliated, claiming that the law granting the funds to the institutions violated the taxpayers' rights under both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

A three-judge federal trial court in Connecticut upheld the act in the face of the Establishment Clause claim on the bases that it authorized grants to church-related institutions of higher learning and that it had neither the purpose nor effect of promoting religion. The court also held that because the grants did not coerce the taxpayers in the practice of their religious beliefs, it did not violate their rights under the Free Exercise Clause. Dissatisfied with the outcome, the taxpayers appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's Ruling

On further review, a sharply divided Supreme Court, in a case in which no opinion commanded a majority, upheld the constitutionality of the act. The Court found that the act violated neither the Establishment nor the Free Exercise Clause. A four-justice bloc, led by Chief Justice Burger and joined by Justices Harlan, Stewart, and Blackmun, formed the plurality that announced the judgment of the Court. A fifth member of the Court, Justice White, concurred in the result, but not necessarily in the plurality's reasoning.

Chief Justice Burger, as author of the plurality opinion, began by defining the scope of the act. The plurality pointed out that Congress intended the act to apply to all colleges and universities, regardless of whether they were religiously affiliated. The plurality then applied the three-part test that it articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), which has become the judicial standard in controversies involving religion in both K-12 and higher educational settings. The judgments in both Tilton and Lemon were handed down on the same day.

In applying the Lemon test, the plurality was satisfied that Congress had a secular purpose in enacting the statute. The plurality explained that the act was constitutional because Congress carefully designed it to ensure both that funds would be available to assist institutions to serve the rapidly growing number of young people who wished to achieve a higher education and that the federal resources would be used for defined secular purposes, while expressly forbidding the use of these monies for religious instruction, training, or worship. In its analysis, the plurality added that none of the four institutions violated the act's restrictions.

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