Denver Law Review Volume 83 Issue 1 Article 4 December 2020 Blaine's Name in Vain: State Constitutions, School Choice, and Charitable Choice Jill Goldenziel Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/dlr Recommended Citation Jill Goldenziel, Blaine's Name in Vain: State Constitutions, School Choice, and Charitable Choice, 83 Denv. U. L. Rev. 57 (2005). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. BLAINE'S NAME IN VAIN?: STATE CONSTITUTIONS, SCHOOL CHOICE, AND CHARITABLE CHOICE JILL GOLDENZIELf ABSTRACT This article explores the growing controversy over "no-funding pro- visions, " state constitutionalprovisions that restrict statefunding of reli- gious institutions. These provisions, allegedly rooted in anti-Catholic bigotry, may threaten state implementation of school choice programs and faith-based initiatives involving public funding of religious social service organizations. This article argues that these no-funding provi- sions, which are commonly termed "Blaine Amendments," "Little Blaines," or "Baby Blaines," are often unrelated to the failed federal Blaine Amendment, and do not always share the federal amendment's infamous anti-Catholic history. In the first study of its type, this article surveys the language and history of constitutionalprovisions prohibiting funding of religious institutions in allfifty states, and details the constitu- tional history andjudicial interpretationof these provisions in eight rep- resentative states: Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Michi- gan, Vermont, and Maine. This article concludes that the fates of school vouchers andfaith-based initiatives will not rest on the so-called "Blaine Amendments," but on the ideological and jurisprudentialtendencies of state judiciaries.