On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States denied petitions for writs of certiorari to the Supreme Court of New Jersey in the case of Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, decided April 18, 2018. From the year 2012 to 2015, Morris County had awarded $4.6 million in taxpayer funds for the restoration and preservation of the religious properties and facilities of 12 churches in the county. Writing for the unanimous court, Chief Justice Rabner stated that the case raised two questions: “… whether the grant program violated the Religious Aid Clause of the New Jersey Constitution and, if so, whether the Religious Aid Clause conflicts with the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution.”

The Religious Aid Clause states that “[n]o person shall … be obliged to pay … taxes … for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry.” (N.J. Const. art. I, par. 3). The court provided a scholarly and detailed history of the clause in question and also contrasted it with similar clauses in other states. The conclusion of the court was that the plain language of the New Jersey constitutional provision in question clearly prohibited Morris County’s grants. The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that New Jersey’s Religious Aid Clause conflicted with the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution.

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