Separation between church and state has always been a hot button issue that strikes the core of many Americans. A case regarding funding for religious schools has reached the Supreme Court, and the outcome could be a game changer. NBC News reports that the United States Supreme Court “seemed prepared Wednesday to rule that states violate the U.S. Constitution if they prevent religious schools from receiving some state benefits.”
Stemming from a case in Montana, a new breakthrough could emerge for parents who want to send their children to religious schools. The specific case is over a program launched in 2015 to provide tax credits for people and businesses that donate to private schools. The schools or businesses that receive the contributions were then able to provide financial aid to parents to send their children to schools of their choice.
Unfortunately, “shortly after it was launched, a state agency barred any of the scholarship money from ending up at religious schools.” Defending their actions, the agency “cited a provision of the Montana Constitution that prohibits ‘any direct or indirect appropriation or payment…to aid any church, school…controlled I whole or in part by any church.”
SCOTUS seemed prepared Wednesday to rule that states violate the U.S. Constitution if they prevent religious schools from receiving some state benefits…
Three mothers who benefitted from the scholarship money took to the Montana courts to challenge the restriction. One of the mothers used the money to help pay for her two daughters to attend Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell. Montana’s Supreme Court had a bizarre ruling. It struck down the entire law, eliminating payments for religious and secular schools, saying “the scholarship program violated the state Constitution.”
Liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan expressed her confusion on the case, saying “everyone’s now in the same boat, since now no money will go to either religious or nonreligious schools. So there’s no discrimination going on now, is there?” However, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed the Conservative opinion that clearly Montana acted in a discriminatory manner when it shut down the program solely because money was being received by religious schools.
Chief Justice John Roberts appears to be on the fence, and perhaps will not side with his conservative colleagues. Roberts addressed the issue that the case was brought by three individual mothers and not the schools. “The claimed injury here is to the schools, but we don’t have the schools before us in this case.”
