CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey applauded the U.S. Supreme Court for its willingness to hear a case involving religious liberty and the use of public funds for private schools.
The Attorney General joined an 18-state coalition in March urging the Supreme Court to hear the case. The court announced its willingness to do so Friday.
“This is an important victory for religious liberty and school choice,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Public funding for private education should be distributed on an equal basis. The same money available to nonreligious schools should also be accessible to religious schools. We look forward to the case being argued and the court’s eventual decision.”
Many of the states that joined the brief partner with private schools to empower parents to make the educational choices they think best fit their families. The details of these partnerships vary, but the states do not condition a school’s participation on its religiousness.
Likewise, the coalition states are united in recognizing religious and nonreligious schools as valid educational partners.
The attorneys general contend that openness to partnering with religious schools furthers their states’ goal of providing an array of education choices. It also protects their citizens’ constitutional rights.
West Virginia had joined the Arkansas-led brief with Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.