- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that poor students
can use public money to attend religious schools, a decision hailed by
President Bush as a landmark victory, but denounced by critics as the worst
church-state ruling in 50 years.
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- On the last day of its term, the high court ruled by
a 5-4 vote that a private school voucher program in Cleveland, which pays
up to $2,250 per year to needy students, does not violate constitutional
church-state separation.
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- In one of the most important church-state cases in decades
on an issue that could reshape American education, the high court's opinion
by Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the program passed constitutional
muster because it was "neutral" and did not advance religion.
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- The dissenters, the court's four most liberal members,
denounced the decision as a dramatic departure from past rulings dating
back more than half a century and warned public funds will pay for religious
indoctrination of thousands of elementary school children.
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- They said the ruling created the risk of religious-based
strife harmful to the nation's social fabric and removed another brick
from the wall of separation between church and state.
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- The decision added to a string of rulings by the court's
conservative majority in recent years that have allowed some state involvement
with religious schools.
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- In the term that begins in October, the justices may
confront another important school church-state case -- a ruling on Wednesday
by a U.S. appeals court in California that the "Pledge of Allegiance"
was unconstitutional because of the phrase one nation "under God."
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- RULING BOOSTS SCHOOL VOUCHER MOVEMENT
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- There now are publicly funded school voucher programs
only in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Florida.
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- Supporters said the voucher ruling cleared the way for
other cities and states to adopt similar programs by removing any legal
question about the constitutionality of system.
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- Voucher opponents blasted the ruling.
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- "The Supreme Court has taken a wrecking ball to
the wall of separation between church and state," said the Rev. Barry
Lynn of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
He called it the worst decision in 50 years.
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- Sandra Feldman of the American Federation of Teachers,
a union with 1.2 million members, vowed to keep fighting if the ruling
resulted in new efforts to adopt voucher legislation.
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- Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union
said, "Today's decision is bad for education and bad for religious
freedom."
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- In a statement issued by the White House, Bush called
it a landmark victory that "clears the way for other innovative school
choice programs."
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- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois,
agreed. "I would hope that state and local governments across
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- the country will move quickly to pass school choice legislation
now that the justices have issued a green light."
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- Rehnquist said the Ohio program was adopted for the valid
secular purpose of providing educational assistance to poor children in
a failing public school system.
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- "It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum
of individuals, defined only by financial need and residence in a particular
school district," he said.
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- "It permits such individuals to exercise genuine
choice among options public and private, secular and religious. The program
is therefore a program of true private choice," Rehnquist said in
the 21-page ruling.
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- RANGE OF OPTIONS AVAILABLE
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- He said Cleveland school children have a range of options.
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- "They may remain in public school as before, remain
in public school with publicly funded tutoring aid, obtain a scholarship
and choose a religious school, obtain a scholarship and choose a nonreligious
private school, enroll in a community school or enroll in a magnet school,"
he said.
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- Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented.
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- "Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was
designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious
strife and weaken the foundation of our democracy," Stevens said.
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- In a dissent that he read from the bench, Souter called
the ruling "potentially tragic."
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- "Public tax money will pay ... for teaching the
covenant with Israel and Mosaic law in Jewish schools, the primacy of the
Apostle Peter and the Papacy in Catholic schools, the truth of reformed
Christianity in Protestant schools and the revelation to the Prophet in
Muslim schools," he said.
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- Breyer said the majority effectively "turns the
clock back" to a view the high court rejected more than half a century
ago.
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