Cert. Filed In Montana Scholarship Tax Credit Challenge

A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 12 in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.  In the case the Montana Supreme Court held that Montana's tax credit program for contributions to student scholarship organizations is unconstitutional under Montana Constitution Art. X, Sec, 6 which prohibits state aid to sectarian schools. (See prior posting.)  The petition for review asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it violates the 1st or 14th Amendments for a state court to invalidate a generally available and religiously neutral student-aid program because the program includes students attending religious schools.  Institute for Justice issued a press release announcing the filing of the cert. petition.