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August 20, 2002 <br />Overnight Delivery <br />Christopher Miller <br />Finance Director <br />City of Roseville, Minnesota <br />2660 Civic Center Drive <br />Roseville, MN 55113 <br />RE: Northwestern College Bond Application <br />Dear Mr. Miller: <br />I C� � I 5M <br />LEGAL N BUSINESS ADVISORS <br />WRITER's D�necr Ntn.�een: (31� 236-2334 <br />D�RECT FAx: (3 1� 592-4690 <br />INrEaNEr: lewis(n3icemiller.com <br />We are serving as Bond Counsel for the proposed tax-exempt bonds to be issued on <br />behalf of Northwestern College. Northwestern College has requested that we provide you with a <br />brief summary of the applicable law regarding the church-state questions surrounding the <br />Northwestern application to the City of Roseville. <br />I believe we have previously provided you with information about our experience as <br />Bond Counsel and about similar transactions upon which we have opined. Please let me know if <br />you would like further information about our credentials on these matters. <br />For at least the last dozen years or so, First Amendment law has steadily trended toward <br />allowing greater and more fle�ble interactions between governmental institutions and religious <br />institutions. In the last five years or so, United Supreme Court decisions and decisions by other <br />courts have begun to stake out a very clear set of ground rules on church-state principles. In <br />particular, a series of decisions beginning with the 1997 Agostini v. Felton decision of the <br />Supreme Court have essentially eviscerated the principal point of concern expressed by bond <br />lawyers when analyzing tax-exempt financings for religiously affiliated institutions. I am <br />speaking, of course, of the historic doctrine of "pervasive sectarianism". Under prior law, almost <br />all aid was prohibited to an institution which was "pervasively sectarian" as compared to merely <br />"religiously affiliated." There were a number of theories in the 1970's as to why this should be <br />true. However, beginning in the early 1980's a"tug-of-war" began in which exceptions to this <br />rule began to appear. These exceptions became clearer moving through the 1980's and into the <br />early 1990's, particularly in the context of what has come to be known as "indirect aid." Agostini <br />is a landmark case in this regard because it overruled two prior cases which were previously the <br />One American Square Box 82001 Indianapolis, IN 46282-0002 P 317-236-2100 F 317-236-2219 www.icemiller.com <br />Indianapolis Chicago Kansas City South Bend ATTAC@�NT B <br />