Today the Institute for Justice filed opening briefs in our fourth case to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court.
IJ’s first trip to the high court came in 2002 and resulted in a landmark victory for school choice. We also won our second U.S. Supreme Court case, defending the American ideals of economic liberty and unfettered interstate commerce by striking down a ban on the direct shipment of wine.
Our third case changed America forever. A local government in Connecticut decided to bulldoze an entire neighborhood and hand the land over to a politically connected private developer. The law was stacked against the property owners in favor of the powerful special interests. IJ, defending the property owners, lost in a controversial 5-4 ruling.
This was the infamous Kelo case, and it resulted in an explosion of outrage and grassroots activism all across the country. Ed Morrissey recently wrote at Hot Air that it arguably set “the stage for the all-out eruption of Tea Party activism a few years later.” This epic battle to protect private property rights, ultimately vindicated by grassroots activists just like you, is one that will never be forgotten:
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And now, as children nationwide get ready to begin a new school year, the Institute for Justice is defending Arizona’s innovative scholarship tax-credit program before the highest court in the land.
In a nutshell, the program encourages taxpayers to donate to organizations that provide scholarships to low-income children to attend better schools. Every donor gets a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, up to $500. As a result, thousands of needy families in Arizona have had the opportunity to escape poorly performing public schools and attend functional and thriving private schools.
The Arizona Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit claiming the program is illegal because parents may use their scholarships at religious schools if they choose. The Arizona Supreme Court disagreed, as the money is given to parents rather than schools. And importantly, it is the parents, not the schools, that choose where the money is spent.
Defiantly, the ACLU filed suit again, this time in federal court. Unfortunately, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the children. This decision drew a strongly worded dissent from Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, who wrote:
[T]he legislature could hardly have had the ‘purpose’ of endorsing religion when it set up a plan that, for all it knew, could have resulted in absolutely no funding for religious entities.
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case for next term. Tim Keller, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter and the lead attorney on the case, made the following statement:
This frivolous lawsuit is a desperate effort by those afraid of true education reform. School choice gives thousands of low-income Arizona families the opportunity for a better education in schools that work for them, and thousands more eager families are on waiting lists. There is no good legal or policy reason to take these scholarships away. We are confident the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that this thriving scholarship program is constitutional.
Nationally, school choice is on the rise. Last month alone, Oklahoma and Louisiana created new programs. And while the teachers unions killed a highly successful school choice scholarship in Washington, DC, that benefits thousands of the poorest kids in the district, the head of DC’s public schools just announced that she is planning to create a new voucher program to help DC kids in need.
To learn more about IJ’s fourth U.S. Supreme Court case, click here.
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