{"id":17575,"date":"2017-01-04T02:44:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T02:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/an-old-anti-catholic-law-has-resurfaced-in-georgia-23799\/"},"modified":"2017-01-04T02:44:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T02:44:00","slug":"an-old-anti-catholic-law-has-resurfaced-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/01\/an-old-anti-catholic-law-has-resurfaced-in-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"An old anti-Catholic law has resurfaced in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Atlanta, Ga., Jan 3, 2017 \/ 07:44 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- An amendment from the 1870s that was once used to target Catholics is now being invoked in Georgia once again to challenge a scholarship program allowing children to attend religious schools.<\/p>\n

And the use of the amendment is deeply unacceptable, religious freedom advocates say.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgia\u2019s program is helping low-income children. It would be a terrible mistake to use a bigoted law from the nineteenth century to hurt schoolchildren today,\u201d said Lori Windham, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed an amicus brief supporting the state\u2019s program in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law is a ghost from Georgia\u2019s past. It shouldn\u2019t be dredged up to haunt education in Georgia today,\u201d Windham continued.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Georgia established the GOAL Scholarship Program, funded by voluntary taxpayer donations, for students to attend private and religious schools. The donations are tax-deductible dollar-for-dollar up to a certain amount \u2013 $1,000 for single filers, or $2,500 for a married couple filing jointly.<\/p>\n

The program helps children of low-income families attend private schools they otherwise might not be able to afford, Becket Fund says.<\/p>\n

In January of 2016, the state hit its cap in taxpayer donations for private school scholarships on the first day, for the second year in a row, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.<\/p>\n

However, opponents have challenged that program in court on the grounds that it violates the state\u2019s constitution. The case is currently before the state\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The constitutional clause in question is the state\u2019s version of the Blaine Amendment, which dates all the way back to the 1870s.<\/p>\n

Named after then-Speaker of the House James Blaine, the Blaine Amendment was originally intended to bar Catholic schools from receiving state funding, instead of the largely Protestant public school system. It was part of the anti-Catholic fervor of the time.<\/p>\n

Efforts to pass it at the federal level failed in 1875 but around 41 states \u2013 including Georgia \u2013 have their own versions of the Blaine Amendment, Diana Verm, legal counsel for the Becket Fund, told CNA.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s constitution states that \u201cno money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult, or religious denomination or of any sectarian institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amendment was \u201cpassed at a time of overwhelming animus toward Catholics,\u201d Verm said, and it was passed with the intent to discriminate against Catholics.<\/p>\n

Today, it is invoked on secularist grounds in many states to prohibit religious institutions \u2013 schools, charities, and hospitals \u2013 from receiving government funds. Its supporters claim that such funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment which forbids Congress from making \u201cno law respecting an establishment of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

State laws should be \u201cneutral towards religion\u201d Verm argued, and should not actively discriminate against religious institutions.<\/p>\n

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a four-person plurality opinion in Mitchell v. Helms, stated that\u00a0 \u201cConsideration of the [Blaine] amendment arose at a time of pervasive hostility to the Catholic Church and to Catholics in general, and it was an open secret that \u2018sectarian\u2019 was code for \u2018Catholic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, nothing in the Establishment Clause requires the exclusion of pervasively sectarian schools from otherwise permissible aid programs, and other doctrines of this Court bar it,\u201d the justices continued. \u201cThis doctrine, born of bigotry, should be buried now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta, Ga., Jan 3, 2017 \/ 07:44 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- An amendment from the 1870s that was once used to target Catholics is now being invoked in Georgia once again to challenge a scholarship program allowing children to attend religious schools.<\/p>\n

And …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nAn old anti-Catholic law has resurfaced in Georgia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atlanta, Ga., Jan 3, 2017 \/ 07:44 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- An amendment from the 1870s that was once used to target Catholics is now being invoked in Georgia once again to challenge a scholarship program allowing children to attend religious schools. 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