Thousands of children’s educations saved at U.S. Supreme Court

ADF attorneys win Arizona parental-choice-in-education case
Monday, April 04, 2011

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a huge victory for proponents of parental choice in education Monday. The high court agreed 5–4 with the arguments of Alliance Defense Fund attorneys and dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against an Arizona program that promotes school choice. The program, like others across the country, allows state residents to claim a tax credit for donations to private organizations that provide scholarships to private schools.

The court dismissed the suit saying that the ACLU’s clients--taxpayers who don’t like the program--didn’t have any legal standing to sue over someone else’s private donations. ADF represented the only party to make this argument to the court. The decision creates a national precedent that will prevent similar legal attacks in the future.

“Parents should be able to choose what’s best for their own children. This ruling empowers parents to do just that,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “Parents should decide what schools their children attend and where their money goes. The ACLU failed in its attempt to eliminate school choice for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide and also failed to demonstrate that it had any constitutional basis for its clients to file suit in the first place.” the rest