I'm Elizabeth Lattery and I'm Tiffany Bates and welcome to SCOTUS 101 where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

This week we're talking about the end of the court's term. The big cases the justices will hear in the fall. We will interview our boss, John Malcolm, and we'll grade our newest justice on his

performance so far. So before we dig into what was perhaps the most anticipated decision of the

term, we'd like to wish a very happy birthday to justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor. They

both celebrated birthdays in June. You know, interestingly, a majority of the justices were

born in the summer. Kennedy, Thomas, Bre majority of the justices were born in the summer.

Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Gorsuch. Five justices, that's enough to win a case.

So the justices are officially out on their summer vacation. There were no retirement announcements,

no last-minute oral arguments. And to quote a young John Roberts, the Constitution is safe for the summer.

So on the last day of the term, the court issued its long-awaited decision in the Trinity

Lutheran case. This is the case that involved a church applying for a grant to resurface its

playground with recycled tires. So what do playgrounds and tires have to do with religious freedom?

Well, a lot, apparently. The state of Missouri had denied

Trinity Lutheran's application for a grant, citing a provision of its state constitution that prohibits

state funds from going to churches. Trinity Lutheran sued and argued that this, that excluding it

from the grant program solely because it's a church violates the free exercise clause of the U.S.

Constitution, and this week the Supreme Court agreed. The court took the case over a year ago in January 2016 and

then waited to schedule oral argument until after Justice Gorsuch had been confirmed.

While the court ended up ruling in favor of Trinity Lutheran 7-2, with two of the liberals,

Justices Kagan and Breyer, were still glad that Gorsuch

was able to participate in the case because he wrote an important concurring opinion

that made it clear that this case should not be read narrowly to apply only to playgrounds

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