Supreme Court to hear vouchers case

Christian Century, Oct 10, 2001

In a potentially major test of church-state lines, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this winter on whether certain school voucher programs are an unconstitutional use of taxpayer money. Justices will decide whether a Cleveland program that gives thousands of students up to $2,500 for private schools violates court-established principles of separation of church and state. A full 96 percent of the students who get the vouchers attend religious schools.

President Bush pushed for vouchers as part of his education package, but congressional leaders shelved the proposal earlier this year. Voucher programs are strongly supported by some religious groups--especially Roman Catholics--while opposed by others for comingling public money with private religion.

The Bush administration, however, defends the program. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Bush's lawyer at the Supreme Court, argues that vouchers are constitutional because the money can go to either secular or parochial schools and the government has shown no preference as to where parents spend the money.

The high court has not ruled on the voucher programs, while lower courts have been divided on the issue. The Ohio Supreme Court allowed the program to continue, while federal courts ruled against it. The Supreme Court decision, expected by next June, will settle the conflicting rulings.

In other cases announced September 25 as part of the high court's 2001-2002 schedule, justices have agreed to substitute a Virginia case for a North Carolina case on the execution of mentally retarded people. The court was to hear the case of a mentally retarded inmate in North Carolina, but the state passed a law barring such executions earlier this year.

In its place, the court will hear the case of Daryl "James" Atkins, who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Eric Nesbitt, a 21-year-old airman in the U.S. Air Force. Prosecutors said Atkins robbed Nesbitt for beer money and then shot him eight times in a field.