Citing the Sunshine State's controversial Blaine Amendment - which states that "no revenue . . . shall be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution" - Florida's First District Court of Appeal recently struck down the 1999 state law that allows students to use tuition vouchers (Opportunity Scholarships) to escape persistently failing public schools. The court's majority ruled that "there is no dispute that state funds are paid to sectarian schools" and that "if Floridians wish to remove or lessen the restrictions of the no-aid provision, they can do so by constitutional amendment." As the Wall Street Journal reports, far from open and shut, this case is in fact far more complicated. If the Florida Supreme Court upholds the lower court's ruling, then a host of other state funding programs could be in constitutional jeopardy, including funding for medical treatment at religious hospitals, rent to churches used as polling stations, Medicaid, subsidized child care, and state-funded scholarships used at religious universities. Since the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to take the Blaine Amendment head on earlier this year in Locke v. Davey (click here for more), other Blaine states will no doubt be watching closely to see how Florida's Supreme Court deals with this ever-dicey issue.
"Appeal court says Florida voucher law is unconstitutional," by Mary Ellen Klas, Miami Herald, August 16, 2004 (registration required)
"Don't Blaine Florida," Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2004 (subscription required)