Nova Law Review Volume 30, Issue 1 2005 Article 2 Pedigree of an Unusual Blaine Amendment: Article I, Section 3 Interpreted and Implemented in Florida Education Nathan A. Adams∗ ∗ Copyright c 2005 by the authors. Nova Law Review is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr Adams: Pedigree of an Unusual Blaine Amendment: Article I, Section 3 Int PEDIGREE OF AN UNUSUAL BLAINE AMENDMENT: ARTICLE I, SECTION 3 INTERPRETED AND IMPLEMENTED IN FLORIDA EDUCATION NATHAN A. ADAMS, IV* I. IN TRO D UCTION .................................................................................. 2 II. PEDIGREE OF THE FLORIDA BLAINE AMENDMENT ........................ 5 A. Florida Public EducationBefore the Civil War................ 6 1. Religious Tolerance ............................................. 6 2. The Age of Private Religious Education ............... 7 a. The TerritorialYears ............................... 7 b. FloridaBecomes a State ....................... 10 3. Florida Know-Nothingism ................................... 12 4. The Common School System Matures ................. 14 B. Florida'sReconstruction ................................................ 17 1. Florida Enacts a Constitutional Common School System ................................................................ 17 2. Public and Private Schools Still Blurred ............. 19 3. First Immigrant Influx ......................................... 21 C. Home Rule and the 1885 State Blaine Amendment ......... 23 D. Public Education Consolidates in the Early 1900s ......... 27 E. Nativism Flourishes as Florida Enters the Twentieth Century ............................................................................ 28 1. Delayed Urbanization Advances ......................... 28 2. Delayed Industrialization Makes Gains .............. 29 3. Immigration Redoubles ....................................... 29 4. Structural Unemployment Develops ................... 30 5. Nativism Flourishes in Florida ............................. 31 F. The Post-World War II Years .......................................... 34 1. Neutral Public Funding of Religious Schools Reem erges ......................................................... 35 * Nathan A. Adams, IV, is Deputy General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas, his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Florida, and his B.A. from Wheaton College. The author wishes to thank the staff of the State Library and Archives of Florida for its invaluable assistance. The author's views are not necessarily those of the Executive Office of the Governor. Published by NSUWorks, 2005 1 Nova Law Review, Vol. 30, Iss. 1 [2005], Art. 2 NOVA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30: 1:1 2. Equal Treatment and Neutrality Principles Reem erge ........................................................... 38 G. The 1967 ConstitutionalRevision Session ...................... 42 H. The 1968 FloridaBlaine Amendment Interpreted........... 43 I. The 1977 ConstitutionalRevision Commission .............. 48 J. The 1997 ConstitutionalRevision Commission .............. 50 K. Last Blaine Amendment Litigation................................. 51 III. THE CONTEMPORARY MEANING OF THE 1968 FLORIDA BLAINE AM ENDMENT ................................................................................ 54 A. The Three-Prong Test for Complying with Article I, Section 3 ...................................................................................... 54 B. The Fee-for-Services Exception to Article I, Section 3 ....... 57 1. Unless Neutral, the Blaine Amendment Is Not Self- Executing ........................................................... 59 2. Adequacy, Uniformity, and the State School Trust Fund .................................................................. 6 1 C. No-Aid Separationism and Unequal Treatment Implicate Other State and Federal ConstitutionalProtections ..... 62 1. Free Exercise of Religion ....................................62 a. FloridaFree Exercise Clause ............... 63 b. Federal Free Exercise Clause............... 64 2. Establishment Clause .......................................... 67 3. Federal and State Equal Protection ...................... 69 4. Separation of Powers and a Political Question ....... 72 IV . CONCLUSION ................................................................................73 I. INTRODUCTION In 1875, Representative James G. Blaine introduced into the United States House of Representatives a proposed constitutional amendment that would have barred states from spending public funds on "sectarian" institu- tions-which were commonly understood as Catholic parochial schools- while preserving Protestant instruction in the public schools.' The amend- 1. See Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 828 (2000) (plurality opinion). "[I]t was an open secret that 'sectarian' was code for 'Catholic."' Id. (citing Steven K. Green, The Blaine Amendment Reconsidered, 36 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 38, 41-43 (1992)); Zelman v. Simmons- Harris, 536 U.S. 639, 721 (2002) (Breyer, J., dissenting) (noting the purpose of federal and state Blaine amendment movements was "to make certain that government would not help pay for 'sectarian' (i.e., Catholic) schooling for children"); Douglas Laycock, The Underlying Unity of Separation and Neutrality, 46 EMORY L.J. 43, 50 (1997) ("Although there were le- gitimate arguments to be made on both sides, the nineteenth century opposition to funding religious schools drew heavily on anti-Catholicism."); Ira C. Lupu, The Increasingly Anach- https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr/vol30/iss1/2 2 Adams: Pedigree of an Unusual Blaine Amendment: Article I, Section 3 Int 2005] PEDIGREE OF AN UNUSUAL BLAINE AMENDMENT ment passed though the House, 180 to 7,2 but fell 4 votes shy in the Senate.' All the same, the amendment enjoyed enough popular nativist support that Congress required new states to adopt this language in their constitutions as a condition of joining the union.4 In addition, many existing states, including Florida, voluntarily adopted the language. Florida first adopted its Blaine Amendment-the last phrase of the dec- laration of rights, section 6-later than most other states in 1885,6 and then readopted it with changes in the last sentence in article I, section 3 in 1968.7 ronistic Case Against School Vouchers, 13 NOTRE DAME J.L. ETHICS & PUB. POL'Y 375, 386 (1999) ("From the advent of publicly supported, compulsory education until very recently, aid to sectarian schools primarily meant aid to Catholic schools as an enterprise to rival publicly supported, essentially Protestant schools."); The Alarm About the Schools, THE NATION, Dec. 16, 1875, at 383 ("[The Blaine Amendment] would no doubt put a stop to ... the process of making covert appropriations of public money, or granting privileges which are the equivalent of money, under one disguise or another, to Catholic societies, schools, and charities."); WARD M. MCAFEE, RELIGION, RACE, AND RECONSTRUCTION: THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE POLrriCs OF THE 1870s 194 (1998); Mark Edward DeForrest, An Overview and Evaluation of State Blaine Amendments: Origins, Scope, and FirstAmendment Concerns, 26 HARv. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 551, 556-57 (2003); John C. Jeffries, Jr. & James E. Ryan, A PoliticalHistory of the Establishment Clause, 100 MICH. L. REV. 279, 301-02 (2001); Toby J. Heytens, Note, School Choice and State Constitutions, 86 VA. L. REV. 117, 131-32 (2000); see generally CHARLES LESLIE GLENN, JR., THE MYTH OF THE COMMON SCHOOL 253 (1988) (mentioning Blaine's proposed amendment would require the States to establish public schools irrespective of religion); JOSEPH P. VrTERITTI, CHOOSING EQUALITY: SCHOOL CHOICE, THE CONSTITUTION, AND CIVIL SOCIETY 151-53 (1999) (explaining the history of the Blaine Amendment). 2. 4CONG.REC.5172,5191 (1876). 3. 4 CONG. REC. 5558, 5595 (1876). 4. See, e.g., Act of Feb. 22, 1889, ch. 180, § 4, 25 Stat. 676, 677 (1889) (enabling act for North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, and Washington); Act of July 3, 1890, ch. 656, § 8, 26 Stat. 215, 216 (1890) (enabling act for Idaho); Act of June 20, 1910, ch. 310, § 2, 36 Stat. 557, 559 (1910) (enabling act for Arizona and New Mexico); S.D. CONST. art. VIII, § 16; N.D. CONST. art. VIII, § 5; MONT. CONST. art. X, § 6; WASH. CONST. art. IX, § 4; WASH. CONST. art. I, § 11; ARIZ. CONST. art. IX, § 10; IDAHO CONST. art. IX, § 5. See also 20 CONG. REC. 2080, 2100 (1889) (statement of Sen. Blair) (arguing in favor of enabling act requirement that state consti- tutions guarantee "public schools ... free from sectarian control," in part because this re- quirement would accomplish purposes of the failed federal Blaine Amendment). 5. PHILIP HAMBURGER, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE 335 (2002) ("Nativist Prot- estants also failed to obtain a federal constitutional amendment but, because of the strength of anti-Catholic feeling, managed to secure local versions of the Blaine [A]mendment in a vast majority of the states.") See, e.g., N.Y. CONST. art. XI, § 3; DEL. CONST. art. X, § 3; KY. CONST. § 189; MO. CONST. art. IX, § 8; FLA. CONST. of 1885, Declaration of Rights, § 6. 6. FLA. CONST. of 1885, Declaration of Rights, § 6 ("No preference shall be given by law to any church, sect or mode of worship and no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denominationor in aid of any sectarianinstitution." (emphasis added)). 7. FLA. CONST. art. I, § 3. Article I, section 3 provides: Published by NSUWorks,