[1][2] The original 1820 Constitution of Missouri contained a provision prohibiting tax dollars from funding the construction of churches or the salaries of ministers, in like manner to the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

[3]: 168 [4] In 1876, the Blaine Amendment to the United States Constitution, which sought to combat the perceived threat Catholics posed to the nation’s Protestant character by prohibiting public funding of parochial schools, failed.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources offers grants that provide funds for qualifying organizations to purchase recycled tires to resurface playgrounds.

On September 26, 2013, District Judge Nanette Kay Laughrey granted DNR Director Sarah Parker Pauly's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

On August 11, 2015, a rehearing en banc was denied by an equally divided circuit, with Judges Gruender, William J. Riley, Lavenski Smith, Steven Colloton, and Bobby Shepherd voting to review.

[11]: 112  Six days before oral argument, Eric Greitens, Missouri’s new Republican Governor, issued a press release announcing that the DNR had been told to allow religious organizations to compete for the tire scrap grants.

"[13] The Court read McDaniel v. Paty, 435 U.S. 618 (1978), in which a plurality of Justices had found that ministers could not be disqualified from becoming delegates to a state constitutional convention, as holding that special disabilities imposed due to religious status are subject to strict scrutiny.

It took strong exception to the ruling, saying it "slights both our precedents and our history, and its reasoning weakens this country’s longstanding commitment to a separation of church and state beneficial to both.