plains most of the Court's decisions in the area. At the end of the Court's 1991-92 term there still wasn't a consensus on substitution should be used to replace the Lemon test. Dependence on "coercion" for that purpose would eliminate a standard distinction between establishment cases and free exercise cases and makes the Establishment Clause an immensely duplicate of the Free Exercise Clause. Justice O'Conner had suggested that it isn't important to solve all the establishment cases from one test, instead has called forth that different circumstances require different approaches. For example, the Justice pointed at that cases involving government "speech" on religious topics be judged by an endorsement test that would repeal government actions only if an observer would distinguish the action as an endorsement or disapproval of religious belief. When the topic of allowing local authorities to provide free transportation for children attending parochial schools reached the Court, it adopted very restrictive language. The Establishment clause projects that the Federal Government cannot participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. But the majority sustained the provision of transportation. They recognized that it "approaches the verge" of the State's constitutional power, still, Justice Black thought, the transportation was a form of "public welfare legislation" which was being extended to "all its citizens without regard to their religious belief." There is even al possibility that some of the children might not be sent to the church schools if the parents were obliged to pay for the transportation. Transportation benefited the child, just as police protection at crossings, fir protection, connections for sewage disposal, public highway and side walks. For this came about the child benefit theory. In 1968 the Court relied on the child benefit theory to sustain state loans of textbooks t...
