Senate Education Committee votes to introduce bill to repeal Idaho’s Blaine Amendment

A Nampa legislator introduced a bill Monday that would repeal the Blaine Amendment in Idaho’s Constitution, a clause that states no public entity — including the Legislature — shall appropriate funds that support religious organizations, including schools.

The joint resolution, sponsored by Rep. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, would need approval from two-thirds of both chambers of the Idaho Legislature to be placed on the ballot, and a simple majority of voters would have to vote to approve the change, according to Idaho law.

“Article Nine, Section Five, known as the Blaine Amendment, is a relic of religious bigotry that prohibits state funds from flowing to sectarian organizations,” Lenney told the committee.

Lenney’s comments were brief, and committee Chairman Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls, did not allow discussion on the motion to print the bill.

“We will have our discussions on it if and when it comes back (for a full hearing),” Lent told committee members.

The Blaine Amendment is included in 37 of 50 state constitutions, including Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. The amendment is named after U.S. Rep. James G. Blaine, a Republican from Maine who advocated for a federal constitutional amendment with the same wording in 1876. While the bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, it failed in the Senate. But the amendment found success in all but 12 state legislatures over the next several decades.

According to historical research, the motivation behind the amendment was targeted to deny government funding to schools operated by the Catholic Church in particular, as Catholic immigration had increased in the 1800s and tensions were high between Catholics and Protestants. At the time, public school days usually included Protestant prayer, lessons taught from Protestant bibles and the singing of Protestant hymns, according to researchers.

Idaho’s Blaine Amendment has been cited as the stumbling block for past legislative efforts to establish scholarship or other voucher-like programs for Idaho students. Groups that have lobbied for school vouchers or education savings accounts argue that recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings related to public scholarships and tax credits for religious schools clear the way for states to create education savings or voucher programs without violating the Blaine Amendment. The court ruled 5-4 in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue in 2020 that a state-based scholarship program that provides public funds to allow students to attend private schools cannot discriminate against religious schools under the U.S. Constitution. In June 2022, the court ruled 6-3 in Carson v. Makin that Maine’s prohibition on vouchers for religious schools was unconstitutional.

In a constituent newsletter sent Monday, Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, said she will have a print hearing for her education savings account bill on Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee. The Idaho Freedom Caucus posted a draft version of the bill on Twitter on Jan. 24.