A Long Road to the Court

Given the ferocity of the debate over vouchers, it is often forgotten that early in the history of the United States, religiously affiliated schools at times received generous public funding from states and cities. By the mid-19th century, with the rise of the common school and the increasing desire by Roman Catholic immigrants for their own schools, government aid to private schools gradually declined. Such aid to religious schools was generally not considered unconstitutional, however, until the 14th Amendment was interpreted as applying to the states the First Amendment's prohibition on a government establishment of religion. The specific policy debate on vouchers that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27 decision is a post-World War II phenomenon. Here's a look at some mileposts on the way to that ruling: