The Federal Building in Burlington houses the U.S. District Courthouse and the U.S. Postal Service. Photo by Bob LoCicero/VTDigger Attorneys for the state defended Vermont’s dual enrollment program in federal court Friday, asking U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss to dismiss a lawsuit that argues the program discriminates against students at religious schools. The Alliance Defending Freedom , a conservative Christian legal organization, filed the suit in January on behalf of two students at Rice Memorial High School, a Catholic school in South Burlington. The suit contends that the state unconstitutionally bars students at religiously affiliated schools from participating in the dual enrollment program , which allows high school juniors and seniors to take up to two college courses at 19 eligible institutions at the state’s expense. The state argues the program doesn’t specifically exclude students at religious schools. In recent years, ADF, one of the best-funded and most powerful Christian legal groups in the country, has won a string of Supreme Court cases , including Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. That case set a key precedent at play in the Vermont dual enrollment case. In a decision in that case, the court held that a Missouri state program […]
