The Catholic Bishop of Charleston, along with the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the South Carolina constitution’s “Blaine Amendment.” This provision, which prohibits the state from “directly” funding any religious or private school, is responsible for blocking the schools operated by the litigants from receiving the federal COVID-19 relief funds to which they are entitled. Although Governor McMaster planned to distribute these funds equitably to all schools, the Blaine Amendment has caused private schools in South Carolina, including many that educate the state’s most vulnerable children and young adults, to miss out on millions of dollars of federal coronavirus funding during the pandemic.
The plaintiffs allege that the Blaine Amendment violates the Free Exercise Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it was motivated by racial and religious animus at a particularly shameful historical moment. That history is revealing and worth a moment of reflection. In 1875, responding to widespread anti-Catholic and nativist fervor, Representative James Blaine introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have prohibited the public funding of “sectarian” schools. When that effort failed, Blaine advocated that states accomplish the same goal by amending their own constitutions. These “Blaine Amendments” were a blatant attempt to decrease the influence of Catholic immigrants throughout the United States. At the time, Catholic immigrants were viewed as dangerous and anti-American because of their perceived loyalty to the Pope. To this day, thirty-seven states still have a Blaine Amendment in their constitution.
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