Sens. Cruz, Lankford File Amicus Brief Defending Religious Liberty in Supreme Court School Choice Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, and James Lankford (R-Okla.) were joined by six Senators and 35 Representatives in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to protect the constitutional rights of faith-based schools participating in school choice programs. The brief warns that allowing the Tenth Circuit's decision to stand could undermine Congress's tax credit scholarship program established under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

Excerpts from the amicus brief are below, and the full text of the brief can be viewed here.

"Many Members of Congress have championed school choice and been longtime advocates of religious liberty. That is why Congress passed the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) last year to provide taxpayers with a means to fund scholarships for children to attend and receive services at public, private secular, or religious schools. Congress enacted ECCA to maximize choice and religious freedom for Americans throughout the country.

"If states like Colorado can attach nondiscrimination conditions to universal preschool programs that effectively exclude religious schools from the benefit program without violating the Free Exercise Clause, then states can attach nondiscrimination conditions to ECCA participation to effectively exclude religious schools. Indeed, states like Vermont have already attached such conditions to ECCA participation. Such state-imposed limitations will jeopardize Congress's landmark education scholarship program-the latest in a long line of Congressional actions that bolster school choice and support religious liberty. Congress enacted ECCA to provide choices to families and to advance religious liberty, not religious discrimination.

"The Free Exercise Clause prohibits government-driven religious discrimination. In Colorado, the government disapproved of Petitioners' religion and excluded them from a public preschool program for which they otherwise qualified. Should Colorado's end run around this Court's Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence be allowed to stand, the tactics employed by that state will not end in Colorado preschools. Efforts are already underway in Vermont, Colorado, and elsewhere to impose similar nondiscrimination requirements with the goal of excluding religious schools from ECCA, a program Congress specifically built to include them."

Joining Sens. Cruz and Lankford in filing this amicus brief were Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.); and Representatives Tim Walberg (R-Mich.-05), Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.-04), Rick W. Allen (R-Ga.-12), Tom Barrett (R-Mich.-07), Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.-05), Aaron Bean (R-Fla.-04), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.-05), Sheri Biggs (R-S.C.-03), Mike Bost (R-Ill.-12), Jeff Crank (R-Colo.-05), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.-19), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.-08), Randy Fine (R-Fla.-06), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.-05), H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.-09), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.-06), Mark Harris (R-N.C.-08), Clay Higgins (R-La.-03), Julia Letlow (R-La.-05), John McGuire (R-Va.-05), Mark Messmer (R-Ind.-08), Mary Miller (R-Ill.-15), John Moolenaar (R-Mich.-02), Riley M. Moore (R-W.Va.-02), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.-05), Bob Onder (R-Mo.-03), Burgess Owens (R-Utah-04), August Pfluger (R-Texas-11), John Rose (R-Tenn.-06), Michael A. Rulli (R-Ohio-06), John Rutherford (R-Fla.-05), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.-03), Chris Smith (R-N.J.-04), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.-11), and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.-02).