The Supreme Court has decided that atheist taxpayers are now required to fund religious schools

[yortsed snacilbuper]

In a 5-4 ruling this morning, the Supreme Court did incalculable damage to the separation of church and state in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. This decision forces American taxpayers to pay for religious indoctrination, gutting the protections in both the United States Constitution and in No Aid Provisions of three-quarters of state constitutions that forbid the use of taxpayer dollars for religious purposes.

“This Court has been opening a hole up in Thomas Jefferson’s Wall of Separation between church and state,” said Nick Little, Vice President and Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry. “Now they’ve built a two-lane highway through that hole, inviting churches to raid the public treasury and drive gleefully away with taxpayer money.”

In 2015 Montana enacted a tax credit voucher program whereby taxpayers received a credit for donating money to Student Scholarship Organizations, which would fund scholarships for students attending private schools. As the overwhelming majority of private schools in Montana (and across the country) are religious, and the Montana Constitution, Article X, Section 6, specifically bans the use of tax dollars for religious education, the Montana Department of Revenue adopted Rule 1, stating that the vouchers could not be used to pay for religious education provided by religious schools. Parents at religious schools sued.

The Montana Supreme Court in 2018 found that such support for religious schools would violate the Montana Constitution and struck down the entire program, preventing the vouchers being used at any private school, religious or not. Despite the fact that the program no longer exists, the Supreme Court nonetheless agreed to review the ruling.

“Let’s be clear about what just happened: The Supreme Court has decided that atheist taxpayers are now required to fund religious schools,” said Robyn Blumner, CFI’s President and CEO. “Members of non-Christian faiths are now required to fund Christian education. The religious right has gotten exactly what it wanted from Trump’s justices: the erasure of a fundamental principle of American law, that no person shall be forced to participate in religious expression by subsidizing religious education.”

“This ruling sets us on a dark, theocratic path,” continued Nick Little. “The Founders made clear that the public purse must not fund religious activities, especially education. Now, with this ruling, it not only can fund them, but it is compelled to.”

https://centerforinquiry.org/press_releases/secular-advocates-denounce-supreme-court-decision-forcing-taxpayers-to-pay-for-religious-schooling/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Because of "I just cant trust Hillary" people, settle in for 20 years of HORRIFIC

legal decisions in ALL areas of the law and all across the country.

[LakeArenal]

3. ‼️

[in2herbs]

2. And in AZ they're trying to allow the use of vouchers for attending out of state schools.

The stoopid burns red hot.

[Phoenix61]

4. The fix for this is simple. Public tax

dollars should not have been going to private schools to begin with.
"A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious," Roberts said.

[stopbush]

5. All Americans now forced to fund the teaching of MAKE BELIEVE

as if it were fact.

[IowaGuy]

6. Christian taxpayers will also be required to fund madrasses....

dumbass Christo-fascist wing nuts didn't really think this thru, did they?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Somebody should start up a Madrassa or Satanic Temple-based school

and request state aid and see how fast the law gets changed. It's unspoken but it's only ever really about aid for CHRISTIAN schools.

[moondust]

12. Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of New York

There is a madrassa in Queens, NY called Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of New York.[104] Presently, the Darul Uloom in New York City, an affiliate of Darul Uloom Haqqania in Pakistan, also serves as a madrassa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasa#United_States

[Doreen]

7. So, all of those far right religious people are going to be

so happy that Catholic schools will get the money also or the Lutheran schools and moderate Methodist schools and so on and so on.

The type of religious schools that demand this money should be for their schools are usually the ones who hate Catholic's, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and moderate Methodists.

How are they going to work it so only far right religious schools gets the money when they realize that the "bad" religious schools are getting it also?

[mshasta]

8. The Church of Satan

Can be included

[roamer65]

9. Yes it can.

They should start forming satanic schools.

They can teach science, evolution and caring for one another.

[Doreen]

10. Yup let's see the far rights reaction to that.

Oh yeah, they are going to have a cow when they realize that the Muslim schools are also considered religious schools.

[Ms. Toad]

13. The ruling says no such thing (although rulings in exestence sine the 30s already reequire it.

Among other things, state money pays for:
Bussing to religious schools
Textbooks for religious school
Auxiliary starf for religious schools
Tax credits for parents to send their childrent to religious schools.

I am truly surprised at how many members of DU are unaware of all of the public $$ that has been going to religious schools for 7 decades. Didn't anyone have catholic buddies who were bussed to their catholic school? Who do you think was paying for that?


This rulling, pure and simple, said that the state is under no obligation to fund private schools.

But - if it does, religious schools must be eligible to receive the funds.


This is the same reasoning as when a school opens its doors to use by the community.

It is not obligated to permit the community to use its buildings after hours

BUT - if it does, religious entities in the community must be eligible to use the space.

The simple solution: Stop raiding the public piggy bank to fund private schools. My tax money should not be funding private schools. Period. I don't care whether they are religious or not. When I vote to fund my local schools, I have NO interest in those funds being diverted to fund private schools.

But as long as a state funds private schools it cannot discriminate against those schools that happen to be religious - because the school must maintain neutrality as to religion. (And, frankly, unless you want the court to overrule Roe v. Wade, you want the Supreme Court to respect its prior decisions.)

[Iggo]

14. Childless people (like me) pay for public school.

Same argument.

Not buying it.

[Girl powers]

15. My take

O.K.......lets start taxing religions.

[UTUSN]

16. K&R