The separation between church and state is occasionally blurred, especially with funding for parochial schools, as New Jersey often provides aid in the form of textbooks and busing for religious institutions.

But this bedrock provision is clear: The state's constitution forbids subsidizing the building of facilities where religious instruction takes place.

So the ACLU sued to block the Christie Administration from awarding $11 million to a rabbinical school and a ministry in 2013. And while its case was based largely on sex discrimination, an appeals court last week voided both grants because these are sectarian institutions, not liberal arts schools with some religious instruction.

Most of the money was to fund capital projects at Beth Medrash Gohova, the large yeshiva in Lakewood. The fact that the area community can deliver a large bloc of Orthodox votes seemed more than coincidental: The community endorsed Gov. Christie when he ran for reelection in 2013.

Indeed, the administration asked for this defeat. When a bond referendum raised $1.3 billion for state colleges that year, the Secretary of Higher Education went before the Senate Budget Committee and would not explain allocation criteria. It was information we were not entitled to have, Christie figured.

Three years later, the court has spelled out for everyone. The governor was using $10.6 million taxpayer dollars as a voter valentine, for projects that "indisputably will be used subsequently, if not exclusively, for religious instruction," the appellate panel wrote.

In other words, Christie's pandering was unconstitutional. Democracy is a tough room.

More: Recent Star-Ledger editorials.

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