A Win for Educational Choice

July 7, 2020 | Episode 6

Join Eva Andrade as she chats with Montana Family Foundation President Jeff Laszoffy on Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.

CASE SNAPSHOT

The Montana Tax Credit Scholarship Program allowed Montanans a tax credit for $150 of their contributions to a privately-run scholarship program. However, the Montana Department of Revenue refused to implement the program, citing the state’s Blaine Amendment, an archaic anti-religious law that forbids tax credits going to schools owned or operated by a “church, sect, or denomination.” The Department’s decision to limit the use of scholarship funds to children that attend non-religious private schools, stood in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Trinity Lutheran decision. In September 2019, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of low-income Montana parents, arguing that the discriminatory history of Blaine Amendments renders them unconstitutional, and that religious organizations cannot be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to widely available public benefit programs.

LINK TO CASE: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf

LINK TO SCOTUS BLOG: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12674439378168326153&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

MONTANA FAMILY FOUNDATION AMICUS:  https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-1195/96535/20190415160021156_MFF%20Espinoza%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf

https://helenair.com/news/local/rally-at-montana-capitol-supports-public-funding-for-private-schools/article_cab840d9-438b-5cfd-9067-8f6c00026b1c.html

Resources:

Press Release (Montana Family Foundation): http://montanafamily.org/press-release-u-s-supreme-court-decision-in-espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/