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Edchoice As Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioners ———— No. 20-1088 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States ———— DAVID and AMY CARSON, as parents and next friends of O.C., and TROY and ANGELA NELSON, as parents and next friends of A.N. and R.N., Petitioners, v. A. PENDER MAKIN, in her official capacity as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, Respondent. ———— On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ———— BRIEF OF EDCHOICE AS AMICUS CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONERS ———— RUSSELL MENYHART LESLIE HINER TAFT STETTINIUS & Counsel of Record HOLLISTER LLP EDCHOICE One Indiana Square 111 Monument Circle Suite 3500 Suite 2650 Indianapolis, IN 46204 Indianapolis, IN 46204 (317) 713-3500 (317) 681-0745 [email protected] [email protected] Counsel for EdChoice March 11, 2021 WILSON-EPES PRINTING CO., INC. – (202) 789-0096 – WASHINGTON, D. C. 20002 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................ iii INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ..................... 1 SUMMARY .......................................................... 1 ARGUMENT ........................................................ 6 I. The Unconstitutional Underpinning of Maine’s Town Tuitioning Prohibition Against Sectarian Schools is Unmasked by Its History ............................................ 6 A. Dispute Over Which Bible to Read in Public Schools Was Fueled by Religious Bigotry 20 Years Before Maine Adopted Town Tuitioning ........ 6 B. Father John Bapst Was Tarred and Feathered for Protecting the Students’ Freedom of Religion ............ 10 C. Different Century, Same Unconstitu- tional Discrimination .......................... 12 II. Without Intervention, Inequalities Between States Allowing Religious Options in Student-Aid Programs and Those Prohib- iting Them Will Be Magnified .................. 16 III. Substantial Social Science Research Reveals Why Students Seek School Choice and Why Educational Services Provided by Religious Entities Matter..... 17 A. School Choice Improves Academic Outcomes and Long-Term Educa- tional Attainment for Participating Students ............................................... 19 (i) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page B. Parents Consistently Express a Desire for School Choice; Having Options to Send Their Children to Religious Schools Is Important ........................... 21 C. Public School Students Exposed to School Choice Have Improved Academic Outcomes ............................................. 22 D. School Choice Has a Positive Impact on Civic Values and Practices and on Racial and Ethnic Integration ............ 23 CONCLUSION .................................................... 24 iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Page(s) Donahoe v. Richards, 38 Me. 379 (1854) ............................ 9, 10, 11, 12 Espinoza v. Montana Dep’t of Revenue, 140 S. Ct. 2246 (2020) ..............................passim Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793 (2000) ................................... 12 Oliver, Jr. v Barresi, No. CV-2013-2072, 2014 WL 12531242 (Okl.Dist. Sep. 10, 2014) ............................ 17 Oliver v. Hofmeister, 368 P.3d 1270 (Okla. 2016) ...................... 17 Sch. Dist. of Abington Twp., Pa. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) ................................... 3 Trinity Lutheran Church of Colombia, Inc. v. Comer, 137 S. Ct. 2012 (2017) ............................... 15, 16 CONSTITUTION U.S. Const. amend. I ...................................passim OTHER AUTHORITIES D. Brock Hornby, History Lessons: Instruc- tive Legal Episodes from Maine’s Early Years – Episode 2 (Nov. 15, 2020), available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ss rn.3731150 ................................................ 10 Dastardly Outrage in Ellsworth, ME, The Liberator (Boston), Oct. 27, 1854 ............. 10 iv TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) David Dzurec, “To Destroy Popery and Everything Appertinent Thereto”: William Chaney, the Jesuit John Bapst, and the Know-Nothings in Mid-Nineteenth Century Maine, 103(1) Catholic Historical Review 73 (2017) .................................................. 7, 9, 10 EdChoice, ABCs of School Choice (2021), available at https://www.edchoice.org/ wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-ABCs-of- School-Choice-WEB-2-24.pdf ..................... 18 EdChoice, Empirical Research Literature on the Effects of School Choice, https:// www.edchoice.org/school-choice/empirical- research-%20literature-on-the-effects-of- school-%20choice/ .....................................passim Mass Meeting in Ellsworth, Bangor Daily Whit and Courier, Oct. 28, 1854 .............. 11 Emily Burnham, 164 Years Ago this Bangor Priest Was Tarred, Feathered, and Ridden on a Rail, Bangor Daily News, June 19, 2018 ............................................ 5 Father Gavazzi on American Schools, Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Dec. 10, 1853 ........................................................... 9 Frederick Whittaker, Another Viewpoint: Church and State, Bangor Daily News, June 26, 1980 ............................................ 15 Fr. John Bapst: A Sketch, Woodstock Letters, vol. 18 (1889), available at http://jesuitarchives.org/woodstock-letters/ #woodstock018 ........................................... 8 v TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Greg Forster, A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Choice (3rd ed. 2013) ............................................ 20 Greg Forster, A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Choice (4th ed. 2016), available at http://www. edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ A-Win-Win-Solution-The-Empirical- Evidence-on-School-Choice.pdf ..... 18-19, 20, 23 Horace Mann, Twelfth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts (1849) ................................ 2 Jason Bedrick & Lindsey Burke, Surveying Florida Scholarship Families (2018), available at https://www.edchoice.org/wp -content/uploads/2018/10/2018-10-Survey ing-Florida-Scholarship-Families-byJason -Bedrick-and-Lindsey-Burke.pdf .............. 22 John B. Sayward, Editorial, Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Dec. 5, 1853 ............... 3 John Bapst Memorial School: Mission and History, https://www.johnbapst.org/about/ mission-and-history/ ................................. 14, 15 Jonathan Mills & Patrick Wolf, The Effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program on Student Achievement After Three Years (2017) ......................................................... 20 vi TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Maine Legislature, Proposed Constitu- tional Legislation 1820 - , available at https://legislature.maine.gov/doc/502 ........ 13 Mark Paul Richard, “This Is Not a Catholic Nation”: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts Franco-Americans in Maine, 82 New England Q. 285 (June 2009) ..................... 13 Paul DiPerna & Michael Shaw, 2020 Schooling in America (2020), available at https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploa ds/2020/12/2020-SIA-Wave-2-Final.pdf ..... 21 Raney Bench, History of Maine – The Rising of the Klan, Maine History Documents (2019), https://digitalcomm ons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory/224 12 The Housekeeper’s Account of Events at Ellsworth, Woodstock Letters, vol. 18 (1889) ......................................................... 9 INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE1 EdChoice is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organ- ization and a national leader in educational-choice research, legal defense and education, fiscal analysis, policy development, and educational training and outreach. The mission of EdChoice is to advance educational freedom and choice for all as a pathway to successful lives and a stronger society. EdChoice supports school choice policies that recognize the right of families to direct their children’s education, by empowering families with financial support and freedom of choice necessary to access educational opportunities that best fit the needs of their children—whether that’s a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment. EdChoice respectfully asks this Court to grant the petition in this matter and determine whether a state that prohibits eligible students from choosing schools providing “sectarian” instruction in an otherwise generally available student-aid program violates the Religion Clauses or Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. SUMMARY Our nation’s founders sought freedom from religious bigotry and the liberty to worship freely and openly, according to each person’s conscience. Education plays 1 Pursuant to Sup. Ct. R. 37.6, none of the parties to this case nor counsel for any party authored this brief, in whole or in part, and no entity or person made any monetary contribution for the preparation or submission of this brief. Pursuant to Sup. Ct. R. 37.2(a), counsel for the parties received timely notice of this filing and all parties have consented to the filing of this brief. 2 an important role in encouraging our children to think about issues as weighty as liberty and religion. That is an important task, because it is often difficult for people and institutions to discern what is, or is not, religious bigotry. Thankfully, at times this Court has an opportunity to deliver guidance on adherence to our constitutional precepts, including freedom of religion. This petition is such an opportunity. Given the many benefits of school choice for students, as shown by the school-choice research summarized in Part III of this brief, this petition also provides this Court with an opportunity to give states clearer guidelines on how they can offer students the widest possible
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