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Monday, August 08, 2011
Ind. Courts - Vouchers before the bench August 11th
From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette's "The Week Ahead" column this morning:
Indiana’s new voucher law goes before a judge in Indianapolis this week, leaving precious little time for a ruling before school starts on whether to stop implementation of the law.ILB: The case was assigned to Judge Michael D. Keele, Marion Superior Court 7 and Aug. 11 was the date set for a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction. You can find background, and the documents in the case, here and here.The judge will consider whether those trying to stop the law are likely to prevail and whether they will suffer irreparable harm if the law isn’t stopped, at least temporarily.
The ruling will focus on two areas of the Indiana Constitution:
• Whether the tax-funded vouchers unconstitutionally finance religious institutions or, allowably, finance parental choice.
• Whether the substantial state aid for private schools interferes with the constitutional mandate to provide a “general and uniform system of Common Schools.”
Arguments on the second point may well be similar to the many arguments over the years regarding whether the two parts of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mean the right to bear arms is a collective right only (for a militia) or an individual right. The “common schools” language (in Article 8, Section 1) also requires the state “to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement.”
Advocates will argue that vouchers are a “suitable means” to do so, while opponents will argue that the language cannot be separated from the requirement for common public schools.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 8, 2011 08:43 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts