The Montana Supreme Court heard arguments in a pri­vate school voucher case on April 8. Americans United and allies previously submitted a brief in the case urging the court to rule that the state was right to stop taxpayer money from funding religious education through a tax-credit voucher scheme.

Montana’s Department of Revenue did not allow reli­gious schools to participate in the state’s tuition tax credit program because state officials wanted to honor Montana’s Constitution, which has a clause that protects freedom of conscience of Montana residents by ensuring that tax revenues can’t be diverted to fund religion. Some residents didn’t like that and sued.

“We have clear separation of church and state that public appropriations cannot be used for religious institutions,” department spokeswoman Mary Ann Dunwell told the Associated Press.

AU and its allies argued that the state’s Department of Revenue was correct to exclude religious education from the program and urged the state’s higher court to reach the same conclusion in the Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue case.

“Montana students and their parents certainly have a fundamental right to choose a religious education, but not at the state’s expense,” the brief reads. “Montana’s government is expressly barred from providing ‘direct or indirect’ aid for religious education.”

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


Join the Fight and Donate Today