Blaine Amendments are bigoted laws that bar public funding for religious institutions, schools especially, and they are still on the books in many states. They trace their roots to the anti-Catholicism that swept the nation in the late 1800s. Facing an influx of Irish Catholic immigrants, politicians tried to amend the U.S. Constitution to prohibit direct aid from the government to Catholic parochial schools that were created as an alternative to the then-explicitly Protestant public schools.
That Blaine Amendment failed at the federal level. So many states took their own go at a “mini Blaine,” or a state-level version, to achieve the same aim. Thirty-seven states succeeded. Fast-forward more than 100 years later: The U.S. Supreme Court has examined many of these state amendments, holding that they discriminate against not only Catholic schools but all faith-based schools.
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