US Supreme Court Decisions - National Catholic Educational Association

The decision affirmed the right of parents to choose the type of education they wanted for their children and also affirmed the right of the state to reasonably regulate private schools. Read the decision

Decision upheld a Louisiana statute that allowed expenditure of public/ state funds to purchase and supply nonsectarian textbooks to parochial school students. Read the decision.

Decision upheld a New Jersey program that established the precedent that a state may provide, with public money, bus transportation services to and from school to students in parochial schools. Read the decision.

Decision upheld a New York textbook law authorizing the lending of textbooks free of charge to all children, including those attending parochial schools, in grades seven through twelve. Read the decision

Decision held that the New York statute exempting from real property tax realty owned by an association organized exclusively for religious purposes and uses for carrying out such purposes is not an unconstitutional attempt to establish, support or sponsor religion or as an interference with free exercise of religion. Read the decision

Decision invalidated Pennsylvania and Rhode Island statutes which provided for the purchase with state money of secular educational services from parochial schools, and which permitted salary supplements to nonpublic school teachers of secular subjects. Read the decision

Decision rendered unconstitutional a New York state tax provision that granted a tuition tax credit benefit to only one class of citizens, parents of non-public school students. Read the decision

The Court upheld programs that utilized public funds and/or employees to provide students in private schools with textbook loans and approved instructional materials and various auxiliary services (speech, hearing) had neither the primary effect of aiding religion or danger of fostering excessive government entanglement with religion where services were provided to specific children on an individualized basis.

The Court invalidated the instructional equipment loan program to the extent that it sanctioned the loan of equipment "which from its nature can be diverted to religious purposes", such as movie projectors that could be used to show sectarian films. Read the decision

Decision upheld as constitutional a Minnesota statute that allows an income tax deduction for tuition, textbooks, and transportation that benefited parents of children attending public, private and religious schools. Read the decision

Decision held that the program under which the City of New York used federal ESEA Title I funds to pay the salaries of public school employees who taught in parochial schools violated the establishment clause since the scope and duration of the program would require pervasive state presence in sectarian schools to monitor the content of the Title I classes. Read the decision

Decision declared the practice of shared time and community education programs, which provided classes to nonpublic school students at public expense in classrooms located in and leased from nonpublic schools, violated the First Amendment because it has the primary effect of advancing religion. Read the decision

Decision upheld a Washington state program that provided a publicly funded tuition grant to a student to use at a religious college. Read the decision

Decision authorized an Arizona school district to place a publicly funded sign language interpreter in a Catholic high school to assist a disabled student under the federal disabilities education program IDEA. The decision allowed for, but did not mandate IDEA services to be provided in a private or religious schools. Read the decision

Decision reversed the earlier Supreme Court decision in Aguilar v Felton. The decision permits publicly-employed teachers to provide remedial educational assistance under Title I programs on religious school campuses during regular school hours or in enrichment programs after school hours. Read the decision

Decision upheld as constitutional Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that provided allows the use of federal funds to supply computer hardware and software and library and media materials to religiously affiliated schools. Read the decision

The decision upheld the constitutionality of the Cleveland Scholarship Program that provides financial assistance to parents to use for tuition at private or out of district public schools or for tutoring services. Read the decision

The Court upheld the state of Washington’s right to deny a tax-funded Promise Scholarship to a college student studying to be a minister because he declared a major in religious studies, and that was considered a violation of the state constitution's prohibition on financing religious instruction. Read the decision

2007- Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association v. Brentwood Academy

The Court found for the Association because the school voluntarily joined the TSSAA and had to abide by its anti-recruiting rules that were necessary to “manage and efficient and effective state-sponsored high school athletic league.” Read the decision

2011- Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn et al.

Although the tax credits for donations to scholarhip organizations were used primarily by students in religious schools, the Court decided that the program gives taxpayers the right to contribute their own money to organizations, no tax payer was forced to contribute and that tax credit funds were never public funds or government property. Read the decision

2012 - Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (EEOC) et al.

In its unanimous decision, the court said that the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar suits brought on behalf of ministers against their churches who claim termination in violation of employment discrimination laws. Reaching that conclusion, the justices considered the central issue of ministerial status. They declined to adopt a litmus test for who qualifies as a minister because do to so would require intrusion into the internal working of a church to make a judgment about its determination of an employee’s contribution to its spiritual mission. Read the decision.

School Choice Cases Not Reviewed by the US Supreme Court

Milwaukee: Voucher Case
1998: Jackson v. Benson -- challenge to the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program that allowed publicly funded vouchers to be used in sectarian schools. The Court declined to hear the case, allowing the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling in favor of the program to stand.

Arizona: Tax Credit Case
1999: Kotterman v. Killian -- challenged the Arizona tax credit law that allows taxpayers to claim a credit for donations to a nonprofit organization that distributes scholarships or tuition grants to private and parochial schools or for fees paid to a public school for extra-curricular activities. The Court allowed to stand the Arizona Supreme Court ruling that found the law does not violate state and federal constitutional prohibitions against government aid to religion. An additonal challenge to the same program reached the U.S. Supreme Court and the program was upheld in 201l.

Maine: Tuitioning Cases
1999: Bagley v. Raymond School Department - the Court declined to hear the case from the Maine Supreme Court that had ruled that Maine's exclusion of religious schools from its school choice program was required by the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. The U.S. Supreme Court also declined to review a similar decision of the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals in Strout v. Albanese, which raised the same issue.

Vermont: Exclusion of Religious Schools from Tuitioning
1999: Andrews v. Vermont Department of Education - U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court, which rejected a claim by Vermont parents that their federal free-exercise rights were being violated by the refusal of the state to include religious schools in the state's "tuitioning" program.