Whether Michigan's constitutional amendment barring direct and indirect public financial support for parochial and other nonpublic schools violates the Equal Protection Clause

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Following modest legislative victories in the 1960s in favor of parochial-school parents and their children, antireligious groups mobilized voter animus against religion to adopt a Michigan constitutional amendment in 1970—akin to a so-called Blaine Amendment—that facially bars any direct or indirect public financial support for nonpublic schools. Ruling shortly thereafter, the Michigan Supreme Court recognized that, despite its neutral language, the amendment’s impact was almost entirely on Michigan religious schools and families: the amendment undid the modest legislative victories parochial-school parents obtained and imposed a near insurmountable burden on future attempts to secure such funding. Indeed, in 2000, Michigan voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot proposal that would have authorized school vouchers and partially repealed the 1970 amendment. This lawsuit challenges the Michigan Blaine Amendment’s validity and presents two questions of substantial importance for this Court’s review: 1. Whether Michigan’s constitutional amendment barring direct and indirect public financial support for parochial and other nonpublic schools violates the Equal Protection Clause. 2. Whether the failure of the 2000 school-voucher ballot proposal purges the amendment of its religious animus for purposes of the Equal Protection Clause.