New Mexico Association of Nonpublic Schools v. Cathy Moses

All children deserve textbooks, right? Education is the future of America, right? Equal opportunity, and education is a fundamental right that many Americans hold dear.  The State of New Mexico has a textbookprogram, which is currently being challenged, as a violation of the Establishment Clause and the state’s Blaine Amendment.  The program uses taxpayer funds, around one million each year, to pay for textbooks and computers for any school that qualifies, whether it be private, public, secular or non-secular.  The program was first created in an effort to increase the literacy rate in New Mexico.  But when New Mexico became a state, a Blaine Amendment, was created in an effort to discriminate against the rapidly growing number of Catholic immigrants moving to the United States.  Many Blaine Amendments exists across the United States because of the anti-Catholic sentiments that raged across the country.  Many anti-religious groups have tried to use the Blaine Amendment in an effort to prevent any funding, direct or indirect to be given to religious organization, and in this case private religious schools in New Mexico.  The state Court of Appeals first dismissed the case, but the State Supreme Court sided with the parents and ended the funding to over one-hundred private schools.  The New Mexico Association of Nonpublic Schools appealed the decision, sending the case to the federal high court.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2012, has taken a new turn due to the decision of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia vs. Comer.  The New Mexico Supreme Court had previously decided that the public funds providing aid to the religious schools were a violation of the Blaine Amendment, but after the Trinity ruling that is up for debate.  The Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer decided that laws which discriminated against religious organizations that would have otherwise receive funds, had they been secular, were deemed unconstitutional.  The court will now have to decide if the Blaine Amendment is constitutional, sending the case back to the New Mexico Supreme Court awaiting oral arguments in May.

The Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia vs. Comer has created a precedent that should make the Blaine Amendments unconstitutional.  The Blaine Amendment, although facially neutral, is not neutral to non-secular groups.  The New Mexico program is also specific in the allocation of funds.  The funds cannot be used for any religious materials, or resources that can be used to promote religion.  This distinction is vital to the continuation of the New Mexico textbook school fund and consistent with the decision in Meek v. Pittenger.   Meek v. Pittenger determined that funds could be used to provide equipment for religious school, as long as there was no government entanglement with religion.  The other argument for the continuation of the program is the fact that the materials that were being provided were granting the same “general benefits” that were available to the public schools.  The helps to create a common educational basis on which the school systems can grow.

The program should be allowed to continue because, the funds are not being used to promote religion, rather they are being used to provide the same teaching materials that are offered at secular schools, and is being used to prevents schools from receiving funds just because they are religious.  The Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer also encourages the continuation of the funding project.  The courts cannot prevent groups from receiving funding based on religion, but I begin to wonder if this sets a precedent of a slippery slope.  Next private schools will be asking for more and more funding.  I do not see an issue with this funding program because of the regulation of the funds, but it does create opportunities for more public funds to be available for religious organizations, as we have seen in the debate over disaster funding available for religious buildings.

https://www.becketlaw.org/case/new-mexico-associations-nonpublic-schools-v-cathy-moses/