I've sometimes heard that surely the Establishment Clause
wouldn't allow the government just to pay the salary of ministers, and that
therefore other kinds of benefits - even ones available to a substantial range
of people or institutions, without regard to religiosity - are
unconstitutional, too.
Now I agree that the government can't pay the salary of
ministers just because they are ministers. But the government actually does
offer salary supplements for ministers, alongside other employees who earn
under the threshold amount, and that's the Earned Income Tax Credit. For
instance, if a minister is a head of household, has two children, and earns
$20,000 (think some assistant pastor, perhaps part-time, at some poor church),
he will get a substantial net payment from the government. That's taxpayer
money going to subsidize ministers (again, alongside the other earners in the
same boat). Would those who take a hard separationist position call this an
Establishment Clause violation? Say the government decided to continue to
offer this benefit to all poor earners, but exclude those who chose to earn
their living by the ministry; would that be consistent with the Free Exercise
Clause? Locke v. Davey suggests it would be, but that doesn't seem right to me.
Note that this isn't a program that's available to everyone, the
way police or fire protection is: it's only available to a minority of
taxpayers. To be sure, the objective criteria - income level, investment
income level, number of children, filing status - are yes-or-no, while in
Trinity Lutheran it's points for each criterion, and benefits to those in the
top X of applicants. But I don't see what constitutional significance that
difference should have.
Eugene
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
