A federal judge could rule on a case challenging Idaho’s Blaine Amendment as soon as next month. Chief District Judge David Nye on Tuesday heard arguments in Truth Family Bible Church’s lawsuit against the Idaho House and Finance Association (IHFA).
Truth Family, a Baptist congregation in Canyon County, last year sued IHFA and Sage International, a public charter school, after the school cancelled the church’s lease to rent a gymnasium for Sunday services. Sage International at the time was applying for about $15 million in publicly funded bonds to finance facilities upgrades.
IHFA lawyers told Sage International that it would likely need to cancel the church’s lease to comply with the Blaine Amendment, a longstanding provision in Idaho’s constitution that prohibits religious organizations from receiving taxpayer resources. Truth Family has argued that IHFA, when citing Blaine, violated religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
During Tuesday’s hearing at the federal courthouse in Boise, Nye asked attorneys questions and offered a timeline for his deliberations. He hopes to have a decision before September, when he starts a monthlong trial in a separate case, Nye said. If not, it will have to wait until October.
The case could have broader implications for Idaho’s ongoing debate over public funding for private schools, most of which are religious. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings on similar constitutional issues have weakened Blaine amendments in other states and cleared the way for taxpayer-funded programs subsidizing religious education.
But Nye’s questions focused on the practicalities of Truth Family’s legal claim — whether the church has standing and what kind of damages it may have suffered. Nye has been a U.S. District Court judge since 2017. He was nominated by both former Pres. Barack Obama and Pres. Donald Trump.
Preston N. Carter, an attorney with Givens Purlsey, which is representing IHFA, argued Tuesday that the organization was following Idaho precedent when it flagged the church’s lease as problematic. Carter pointed to a 1974 Idaho Supreme Court case, which found that bond proceeds to finance a religious hospital violated the Blaine Amendment.
IHFA is caught in the middle of “rapidly changing” legal precedent, Carter said, between Idaho’s longstanding prohibition on public aid to religion and SCOTUS’ recent rulings opening the same door elsewhere.
“Uncertainty is the bane of bond transactions,” he said. “…Our sole position and desire was to comply with Idaho law.”
IHFA wouldn’t object to Sage International renewing the lease now, after the bond application process is complete, Carter noted.
But Truth Family’s lawsuit has a wider aim than renewing the lease. The church has argued that Idaho’s Blaine Amendment is facially unconstitutional — a violation of the First Amendment in all instances, not just this one.
Truth Family is represented by Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal defense group that specializes in religious freedom and other hot-button political issues.
Katherine Hartley, a Coeur d’Alene-based attorney for Pacific Justice Institute, said Tuesday that the problem with Blaine lies in its “very sweeping language” — which bars “anything in aid” to religious organizations. The provision is wielded by people who believe in a “rigid separation between church and state,” she said.
For a deeper look at the arguments in this case, click here.
Nye asked whether IHFA should be considered a “state actor” in this case, and both attorneys agreed that it should. IHFA isn’t a state agency, but the state gives it authority to issue bonds on its behalf.
IHFA is not using the state’s attorneys to defend the case, however. While Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office is a party to the lawsuit, it’s only as an intervenor.
In court briefs, James E. M. Craig, chief of the attorney general’s Civil Litigation and Constitutional Defense division, has argued that IHFA “erroneously” applied the Blaine Amendment and the lease shouldn’t have qualified as giving “aid” to a religious organization. Craig attended Tuesday’s hearing but didn’t present arguments.
While questioning Hartley, Nye noted that taxpayer money didn’t directly benefit the church — as it did in the 1974 religious hospital case.
Truth Family has asked Nye to rule that the Blaine Amendment is unconstitutional “on its face” and issue an injunction barring the state from enforcing it. The church also requested “nominal damages” — a small fee acknowledging a violation — along with attorney’s fees.
