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Blaine Amendment (U.S. Constitution)
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The Blaine Amendment refers to the constitutional amendment proposed on December 14, 1875, by Rep. James G. Blaine (1830-1893) of Maine in reaction to efforts by religious groups, mainly the Catholic Church, to establish parochial schools with public funding. President Ulysses S. Grant had suggested, in his final annual address to the United States Congress in December of 1875, that an amendment be proposed “making it the duty of each of the several States to establish and forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education of all of the children” and “prohibiting the granting of any school funds, or school taxes . . . for the benefit of or in aid . . . of any religious sect or denomination.”[1]
The text of the proposed amendment read:
| “ | No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any State, for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect, nor shall any money so raised, or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations.
Source: 44 Cong. Rec. __ (December 14, 1875). Amendment, Congressional Record, 44th Congress, 1st session, 14 December, 1875.[2][3] |
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On August 4, 1876, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the amendment with 180 votes in favor, 7 votes opposed. The amendment, however, did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate, with only 28 votes in favor and 16 votes opposed. Nevertheless, the language and substance of the Blaine Amendment were incorporated into many state constitutions, especially in the West after Congress made it a pre-condition for admission into the Union in 1876. Eventually, 37 states came to have such amendments forbidding public funds from being used for sectarian schools. These amendments have been cited repeatedly in opposition to school vouchers, on the grounds that public funds cannot be used to pay for education in religious schools under state Blaine Amendments.[4][5]
Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded a Montana Supreme Court ruling in a 5-4 opinion, holding the application of Article X, Section 6 (Montana's Blaine Amendment) of the Montana Constitution violated the free exercise clause of the U.S. Constitution. The majority held that the application of Article X, Section 6 was unconstitutional because it barred religious schools and parents who wished to send their children to those schools from receiving public benefits because of the religious character of the school.[6]
Click here to read more about Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.
See also
- Blaine amendments in state constitutions
- Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
- School vouchers
- Education on the ballot
- Education policy in the United States
External links
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, "Blaine, James Gillespie."
Footnotes
- ↑ Bybee, Jay S. "Of Orphans and Vouchers: Nevada's "Little Blaine Amendment" and the Future of Religious Participation in Public Programs." Scholarly Works 354. (2002)
- ↑ The Religious Liberty Archive, A service of the Religious Institutions Group," accessed April 11, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ America, "A Mandate for Anti-Catholicism: The Blaine Amendment," by Thomas E. Buckley, September 27, 2004.
- ↑ Missouri Law Review, "Dusting off the Blaine Amendment: Two Challenges to Missouri's Anti-Establishment Tradition," by Aaron E. Schwartz, Winter 2008.
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, decided June 30, 2020
