Simmons-Harris, Et Al v. Zelman

• Decision Date: 20 June 2000
• Docket Number: 00-3060,00-3063,Nos. 00-3055,s. 00-3055
• Citation: 234 F.3d 945
• Parties: (6th Cir. 2000) Doris Simmons-Harris; Marla Franklin; Steven Behr, Rev.; Sue Gatton; Mary Murphy; Michael Debose; Cheryl Debose; Glenn Altschuld; Deidra Pearson, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Susan Tave Zelman, Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Ohio, et al., Defendants-Appellants (00-3055/3060), Senel Herman Taylor, et al., Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants (00-3055), Hanna Perkins School, et al., Intevenors-Defendants-Appellants (00-3063). Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 945

234 F.3d 945 (6th Cir. 2000)

Doris Simmons-Harris; Marla Franklin; Steven Behr, Rev.; Sue Gatton; Mary Murphy; Michael Debose; Cheryl Debose; Glenn Altschuld; Deidra Pearson, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Susan Tave Zelman, Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Ohio, et al., Defendants-Appellants (00-3055/3060),

Senel Herman Taylor, et al., Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants (00-3055),

Hanna Perkins School, et al., Intevenors-Defendants-Appellants (00-3063).

Nos. 00-3055, 00-3060, 00-3063

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Argued: June 20, 2000

Decided and Filed: December 11, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland. Nos. 99-01740, 99-01818, Solomon Oliver, Jr., District Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Clint Bolick, Matthew Berry, INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., David C. Tryon, PORTER, WRIGHT, MORRIS & ARTHUR, Cleveland, Ohio, Edward B. Foley, Karen L. Lazorishak, Roger F. Carroll, James G. Tassie, Mary Lynn Readey, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Columbus, Ohio, David J. Young, Michael R. Reed, SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellants.

Robert H. Chanin, Andrew D. Roth, BREDHOFF & KAISER, Washington, D.C., David G. Latanick, CLOPPERT, PORTMAN, SAUTER, LATANICK & FOLEY, Columbus, Ohio, Elliot M. Mincberg, Judith E. Schaeffer, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY, Washington, D.C., Raymond Vasvari, ACLU OF OHIO FOUNDATION, INC., Cleveland, Ohio, Steven K. Green, AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, Washington, D.C., Marvin E. Frankel, KRAMER, LEVIN, NAFTALIS & FRANKEL, New York, New York, for Appellees.

William E. Thro, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Richmond, Virginia, M. Reed Hopper, PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION, Sacramento, California, Paul Clement, KING & SPALDING, Washington, D.C., Victoria W. Ni, REBOUL, MACMURRAY HEWITT, MAYNARD & KRISTOL, New York, New York, Joshua R. Cohen, KAHRMAN, JACKSON & KRANTZ, Cleveland, Ohio, Nicholas A. Pittner, BRICKER & ECKLER, Columbus, Ohio, for Amici Curiae.

Before: RYAN, SILER, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.

CLAY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which SILER, J., joined. RYAN, J. (963-74), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Defendants and Intervenors Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, et al.; Senel Taylor, et al.; and Hanna Perkins School, et al., appeal from the order entered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, enjoining on summary judgment the Ohio Pilot Project Scholarship Program on the ground that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I.

In 1995, Ohio's General Assembly adopted the Ohio Pilot Project Scholarship Program ("voucher program" or "the program") in response to an order by the United States District Court that placed the Cleveland School District under the direct management and supervision of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction due to mismanagement by the local school board. The voucher program covers any state school district that has been the subject of a federal court order "requiring supervision and operational management of the district by the state superintendent." Ohio Rev. Code §3313.975(A). The program provides scholarships to children residing within the applicable district in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. See Ohio Rev. Code §3313.975(C)(1). The program gives "preference to students from low-income families," defining them as those whose families' income is less than 200% of the poverty line. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3313.978(A). "Scholarships may be awarded to students who are not from low-income families only if all students from low-income families have been given first consideration for placement." Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, Administration Procedures Manual, 1-11 (J.A. at 1358) (emphasis original). Over sixty percent of the children receiving scholarships in the program are from families with incomes at or below the poverty line.

The voucher program pays scholarships according to family income. The program requires participating private schools to cap tuition at $2500 per student per year and pays 90% of whatever tuition the school actually charges for low-income families; for other families, the State pays 75% of the school's tuition up to a maximum of $1875. See Ohio Rev. Code. §§3313.976(A)(8), 3313.978(A). Each scholarship for children attending a private school is payable to the parents of the student entitled to the scholarship. Ohio Rev. Code §3313.979. Scholarship checks are mailed to the school selected by the parents, where the parents are required to endorse the checks over to the school in order to pay tuition.

Schools wishing to be designated as program participants eligible to enroll scholarship students must register with the voucher program. Private schools located within the boundaries of the Cleveland school district which meet the State's educational standards may participate. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3313.976(A)(1) and (3). Schools are required to follow the program's priority rules regarding the placement of students and may not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic background; advocate or foster unlawful behavior; or teach hatred of any person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3313.976(A)(6). Public schools in districts adjacent to the district in which the voucher program is implemented may also register for the program and "receive scholarship payments on behalf of parents," but none of the public schools in districts adjacent to Cleveland have done so. Ohio Rev. Code § 3313.976(C). The checks for program participants at public schools are made out to the participating school district rather than to the parents. No public schools have registered for the program since its enactment.

For the 1999-2000 school year, 3,761 students enrolled in the program; 60% of the enrollees are from families at or below the poverty level. Of these, 3,632 (96%) are enrolled in sectarian schools. At one time in the course of the program, as many as 22% of the students enrolled in the program attended nonreligious schools. During the 1999-2000 school year, fifty-six schools registered to participate in the program; forty-six (82%) are church-affiliated. Program monies may be used by the participating schools for whatever purpose they deem appropriate; the voucher program does not place restrictions on the use of funds made available under the program.

The sectarian schools vary in their religious affiliation and approaches; however, the handbooks and mission statements of these schools reflect that most believe in interweaving religious beliefs with secular subjects. The sectarian schools also follow religious guidelines, including instruction in religion and mandated participation in religious services; interweaving of Christian doctrines with science and language arts classes; requiring that "all learning take place in an atmosphere of religious ideals," St. Vincent de Paul School, Parent Handbook 11 (1999-2000); and designing educational scholarship in order "to make . . . faith become living, conscious, and active through the light of instruction . . . religious truths and values permeate the whole atmosphere of the school." Saint Rocco School, Parent-Student Handbook1 (1999-2000). Other sectarian schools in the voucher program believe that "the one cardinal objective of education to which all others point is to develop devotion to God as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier," Saint John Nottingham Lutheran School, Parent Handbook 2 (1999-2000); and to require students to "pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands, One Savior crucified, risen and coming again with life and liberty for all who believe." Calvary Center Academy, Parent-Student Handbook 24 (1999-2000).

In prior litigation, Doris Simmons-Harris, one of the Plaintiffs herein, brought a state court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the voucher program under multiple provisions of the Ohio Constitution, and under the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. On May 27, 1999, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a judgment in favor of Plaintiffs, holding that the 1995 voucher program had been enacted in violation of the one-subject rule of the Ohio Constitution, and "must be stricken" from the Ohio statute books. See Simmons-Harris v. Goff, 711 N.E.2d 203, 216 (Ohio 1999). However, a majority of the justices rejected Plaintiffs' claims that the program violated the Establishment Clause. Id. at 207-11, 218-19. Those justices reasoned that "[t]he Nyquist holding [had been] undermined" by subsequent cases and was thus no longer good law. Id. at 208. A concurring opinion noted that "[w]ith regard to the rest of the majority opinion [the section not dealing with the one-subject rule], . . . I find a number of the other assertions by the majority to be advisory in nature." Id. at 216 (Douglas, J., joined by Resnick and Sweeney, JJ., concurring in the judgment only). Since this case, the Ohio Legislature has re-enacted the voucher program in a manner remedying the one-subject problem; however, the 1999 program is in all relevant aspects, the same as the original pilot scholarship program enacted by the Legislature in 1995.

On July 20, 1999, Simmons-Harris, the parent of a minor child enrolled in the Cleveland City School District for the 1999-2000 school year; Marla Franklin, a teacher in the Lorain City School District; and Steven Behr, pastor of Our Savior/Nuestro Salvado Church in Lorain, Ohio, filed suit in Case No. 1:99cv1740, against Defendant Dr. Susan Tave Zelman in her official capacity as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Ohio Department of Education, seeking to enjoin a portion of the program on the...