The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month in a case brought by Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, against the state. At first blush, the dispute seems like a simple playground dispute. But the ruling could have powerful implications for the separation of church and state and the funding of religious schools in the United States.

The church’s grievance dates back to 2012, when its preschool applied for a state grant to purchase scrap tire materials to resurface its playground. The grant program, administered by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, aims to reduce the number of tires in landfills while fostering child safety. Although Trinity Lutheran was ranked fifth out of 44 applications, the state denied its grant application because of a provision in the Missouri state constitution prohibiting the use of public funds for churches. So Trinity Lutheran sued.

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Other legal scholars agree with the church that it’s simply a matter of equality. Michael McConnell, a former Tenth Circuit judge who now teaches at Stanford Law School, said, “What it comes down to is whether children attending a daycare can be denied safety benefits just because of the religious affiliation of the daycare when there’s no public policy benefit at all.” McConnell called the state’s argument that a ruling for the church might force the government to fund religious schools “ridiculous.” Fred Gedicks, a law professor at Brigham Young University, said, “It seems hard to imagine pieces of rubber tire being converted to a sectarian use. It is obviously aid to a church, but one could argue it’s aid to the church in the same sense public utilities are aid to a church, or the fire department or the police department.” It should be noted, however, that fire and police protection are universal benefits. Missouri’s scrap tire grant program was always limited to qualifying institutions.