SCOTUS denies challenge to Michigan ban on public money for private schools

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Michigan’s constitutional ban on direct or indirect public financial support for non-public schools.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation represents five families who argued the 1970 ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. The parents would like to be able to claim a tax break for private school tuition savings accounts.

A central element of the Mackinac Center’s case was an argument that the amendment is rooted in religious bigotry and animus toward Catholics in particular. That is despite the fact that the amendment is silent on religion.

“The time period that it was passed, 1970,  it was written facially neutral, but the way that it was campaigned upon was very anti-Catholic, and so there is this stigma that has remained with and we were hopeful that the court would recognize that stigma,” said Patrick Wright, the foundation’s legal director.

Lower federal courts held the voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution does not violate religious freedom protections. The Supreme Court refused the appeal without comment.

Douglas Pratt with the Michigan Education Association said that was the right call because, otherwise, the door would be opened to indirect diversions of money from public education.

“Michigan’s Constitution is very clear on public money not going to private schools,” he said. “Voters have stood up against efforts to change that over the years. Taxpayer funds should rightly go to our public schools, where the vast majority of our students attend.”