Locke vs. Davey Won't Hinder Voucher Expansion, Say Legal Experts
Religious institutions must be included in federally funded programs.
By Rob Moll | posted 3/01/2004 12:00AM
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Narrow ruling leaves door open for vouchers
By limiting their decision to clergy training, the court left open the issue of using federal funds at religious schools. "If this had just been under the federal Constitution, obviously Mr. Davey would have won. Rehnquist makes that clear in his decision," said Haynes. "Voucher proponents can take hope that the court narrowly focused on using the money to fund someone to become a minister."
Rehnquist wrote, "There is no doubt that the state could, consistent with the federal Constitution, permit Promise Scholars to pursue a degree in devotional theology." According to the ACLJ's Webber, that means a voucher program that excluded schools solely because of religion would not find shelter under Locke vs. Davey. "That, in our view, would be unconstitutional discrimination," he said.
"I don't think voucher opponents can take too much heart from this," said Haynes. "It may be that a majority of the Supreme Court will not defer to these state constitutional provisions if they are interpreted to exclude religious institutions from an otherwise general, neutral voucher program."
'Blaine amendments survive for another day'
"I guess what voucher proponents were hoping for was a cleaning up of these provisions," said Haynes. "One of the most important things about this decision is that the U.S. Supreme Court didn't buy that argument. The so-called Blaine amendments survive for another day."
And that's the problem, says Jim Tonkowich, managing editor of Breakpoint "Our own bigotry from a century or so ago has come back to bite us," he said. Protestants, who had pushed for the amendments a century ago to prohibit funding of programs for Catholic immigrants and Catholic schools, are now on the receiving end.
Rob Moll is online assistant editor for Christianity Today magazine.
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Related Elsewhere:
After the Supreme Court ruling, Weblog commented that the decision clouded church/state issues.
Also posted today is a article focusing on the ruling.
More is available from the Politics & Law page.
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