Posted on 09/25/2001 7:26:56 AM PDT by SAMWolf
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether school voucher programs like those favored by the Bush administration are a constitutional use of taxpayer money.
The court said it will hear three related cases arising from a program that provides tuition aid to parents of nearly 4,000 students in failing public schools in Cleveland.
Lower courts reached opposite conclusions about whether the program is unconstitutional government promotion of religion.
A high court ruling is expected by June.
The Ohio program offers the justices an opportunity for a broad ruling on a long-simmering political issue that generally pits social conservatives and some inner-city parents against civil liberties groups and teachers' unions.
School vouchers were a centerpiece of President Bush's education platform during his campaign, and his top Supreme Court lawyer filed an uninvited friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to take on the Cleveland dispute.
Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued that the Cleveland program is constitutional, because it provides the same amount of cash help to students no matter whether they enroll in church-run schools or nonreligious private academies.
In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the (U.S.) Supreme Court set forth a three-prong test to determine whether the Establishment Clause has been violated. Various Supreme Court justices have challenged the continuing validity of the Lemon test...Nevertheless, Lemon remains the law of the land. According to Lemon, a statute does not violate the Establishment Clause when (1) it has a secular legislative purpose, (2) its primary effect neither advances nor inhibits religion, and (3) it does not excessively entangle government with religion.
The Ohio Court found:
We conclude that the School Voucher Program has a secular legislative purpose, does not have the primary effect of advancing religion, and does not excessively entangle government with religion. Accordingly, we hold that the School Voucher Program does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I suspect (and hope) the SCOTUS will agree.
We conclude that the School Voucher Program has a secular legislative purpose, does not have the primary effect of advancing religion, and does not excessively entangle government with religion. Accordingly, we hold that the School Voucher Program does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Where do you get your info from? Both the trial court and the 6th Circuit ruled that the voucher program in Ohio is unconstitutional.
If it will allow a neighbor to send his child to a non-state sponsored
school that is specifically designed to teach prejudice and indifference
with a common Atheist theme... and get reimbursed for doing so...
Then the bill would pass the "Lemonade".
But is that what "conservatives" really want?
(I don't)
(I don't)
Indeed. *If* vouchers are ruled constitutional and *if* a wave of people start removing their kids from public schools as a result, those private schools - including religious ones - will soon find themselves so regulated that they will be virtually indistinguishable from public schools.
With the sheckles come the shackles.
With the sheckles come the shackles.
Real world experience shows you are deeply in error.
Except, apparently, when it comes to airline and airport security...
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