People For the American Way “ Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears ” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. Cases in the series can be found by issue and by judge at this link Second Circuit Trump judge Steven Menashi wrote an opinion, joined by Trump judge Richard Sullivan, mandating that the state of Vermont pay a student’s tuition at a religious high school, despite a state constitutional provision forbidding such aid to religious schools. Menashi went even further in a concurring opinion, suggesting that such aid must be provided even if it is used to help fund religious worship and education. The June 2021 decision was in A.H. ex rel Hester v French. The State of Vermont has a Town Tuition Program (TTP) under which school districts without high schools pay tuition to other high schools chosen by parents of high school-age students in such districts. Under a Vermont state constitutional provision that prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to pay for “religious education” and worship that is more protective of church-state separation than the First Amendment, state school districts denied a TTP funding request of several students to […]
