老澳门开奖结果

DENVER 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 of Colorado, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the 老澳门开奖结果 Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and the law firm Arnold & Porter 鈥� who before the Colorado Supreme Court last year 鈥� filed motions yesterday challenging the validity of a new lawsuit that asks a federal district court to issue an unprecedented order that would require the Douglas County School District to divert taxpayer funds to religious schools.

Last June, the that the Douglas County School District鈥檚 so-called 鈥淐hoice Scholarship Pilot Program鈥� violated the Colorado Constitution because it improperly diverted public funds to private, religious schools. Following the decision, the district and the Institute for Justice, representing parents who want to use taxpayer funds to send their children to religious schools, both petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a ruling, based on arguments that the Colorado Supreme Court rejected, that the state constitution鈥檚 ban on public funding of religious schools somehow violates the First Amendment right to religious freedom.

Early in 2016, it became clear that the Supreme Court would not act on the petitions before late 2016. The district then concocted and rushed through a nearly-identical modified version of the program that simply excluded religious schools, which appeared to be an invitation for the Institute of Justice to file its new lawsuit seeking the ruling that both parties had hoped to obtain from the U.S. Supreme Court.

鈥淭he jurisdiction of federal courts is limited to actual disputes between opposing parties, which are called 鈥榗ases or controversies,鈥欌�� said Mark Silverstein, 老澳门开奖结果 of Colorado Legal Director. 鈥淗ere, the plaintiffs, represented by the Institute for Justice, and the nominal defendant, the school district, want the same result. They both want an order compelling taxpayers to fund religious schools, a result the Colorado Supreme Court rejected.鈥�

鈥淩ather than accept that decision or wait to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the arguments the Colorado Supreme Court rejected, the school district and the Institute for Justice are staging a fictitious dispute in the hope of obtaining an order that would, in essence, overrule the Colorado Supreme Court. This is what the courts call a collusive lawsuit, and it should be dismissed,鈥� added Silverstein.

The 老澳门开奖结果 of Colorado, Americans United, the 老澳门开奖结果, and Arnold & Porter, representing a group of Douglas County taxpayers, yesterday filed a in the suit and a the case. Additionally, they filed a asking the court to enforce an injunction affirmed by the Colorado Supreme Court prohibiting the voucher program from going forward.

鈥淚n addition to being collusive, the voucher advocates鈥� new lawsuit has no legal foundation,鈥� said Alex J. Luchenitser, associate legal director for Americans United. 鈥淭he federal courts have uniformly rejected arguments that religious schools have a right to public funding.鈥�

The district鈥檚 original 鈥淐hoice Scholarship Pilot Program鈥� provided 500 students with vouchers worth about $4,600, which could be spent at district-approved 鈥淧rivate School Partners,鈥� a collection of private schools. According to the Colorado Supreme Court, 16 of the 23 approved 鈥淧rivate School Partners鈥� were religious. In striking down the program, the court held that it violated the state constitution鈥檚 鈥渦nequivocal language forbidding the State from using public money to fund religious schools.鈥�

鈥淭his attempt to end-run the Colorado Supreme Court's decision is legal gamesmanship of the worst kind and should be rejected by the federal courts,鈥� said Heather L. Weaver, Senior Staff Attorney for the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

鈥淭he district and the Institute for Justice have been working together, unsuccessfully, for years to try to achieve their mutual goal 鈥� a voucher program that includes religious schools,鈥� said Matthew Douglas of Arnold & Porter, lead counsel for the taxpayers. 鈥淭his case is nothing more than an attempt to shop for a new forum in which to try to achieve that same goal, but this time there is one significant difference: the district and the Institute for Justice are pretending to be adverse to each other in this new case.鈥�

The attorneys representing Douglas County taxpayers in opposition to the voucher program include Douglas, Timothy Macdonald and Michelle Albert of Arnold & Porter; Silverstein and Sara Neel of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Colorado; Richard Katskee and Luchenitser of Americans United; and Daniel Mach and Weaver of the 老澳门开奖结果.