American Federation for Children

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Anti-School-Choice Ninth Circuit Decision

Posted on Monday May 24, 2010 | Washington, DC

Washington, DC (May 24, 2010) Supporters of school choice programs that provide children with educational opportunity will once again have their day in court—in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court decided today that it would hear an appeal to a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that declared an Arizona school choice program unconstitutional. 

This marks the second time in U.S. history that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a school choice case, after its 2002 ruling in the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris case declaring school voucher programs constitutional. 

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case provides school choice supporters with an opportunity to once again demonstrate the constitutionality of school choice programs, according to the American Federation for Children. Amicus briefs filed by eight states and a multitude of civic organizations have called for the Ninth Circuit's decision to be overturned. 

The Institute for Justice, the legal arm of the school choice movement, has argued that Arizona’s Individual School Tuition Organization Tax Credit Program is constitutional and that the Supreme Court should reject the Ninth Circuit’s ruling because “the appeals court ignored controlling Supreme Court precedent and because its decision conflicts with an Arizona Supreme Court’s 1999 decision upholding the program from an identical legal challenge.”

The program benefits 28,933 primarily-disadvantaged children attending more than 375 schools via scholarships from 54 School Tuition Organizations.

According to IJ: “The case was filed 10 years ago by the ACLU, which claims that the tax credit program advances religion because taxpayers—free from any government pressure—have independently decided to give more money to religiously affiliated School Tuition Organizations than to nonreligious organizations. Arizonans are free to give to any of the 54 organizations currently operating in Arizona, including many that are nonreligious.” 

Through the program, individual taxpayers can receive a credit on their state income taxes by making a voluntary contribution to a School Tuition Organization.

“The ACLU successfully shopped around for a court that would side with its anti-school-choice position regarding Arizona’s scholarship tax credit program, but now the U.S. Supreme Court will have the opportunity to set the record straight,” said Betsy DeVos, chairman of the American Federation for Children. “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court of the United States will side with the 28,000+ children served by this program and, most importantly, the freedoms granted to all of us under the Constitution of the United States of America." 

The Federation congratulated the Institute for Justice for its compelling appeal and consistent good stewardship of school choice legal matters.