re: #279 Backwoods_Sleuth

The ruling is here. The state had argued that allowing the scholarships to go to religious schools would have violated the state constitution prohibition on state funding for churches or religious organizations. https://t.co/KDIvtqaCfZ

— Kimberly Atkins (@KimberlyEAtkins) June 30, 2020

Shit.
This ruling seems like a BFD - and not at all in a good way. AFAICT (and I will have to read some more analysis, IANACL, etc….) it seems to knock down a substantial section of the church/state wall, and Constitutionalizes the spending of public (i.e. taxpayer) money on religious organizations - and if a religious school isn’t a “religious organization”, what IS, then? And on “religious freedom”?”free exercise” grounds?

ADD: OK, digging into it a bit more, I see that the Montana case does not address direct funding, but rather the State’s tax credits for donations for scholarships: which had been disallowed for contributions to/for religious schools. Still doesn’t sound like a good thing; though I’ll admit to fairly intense bias here.