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Page Number: 40

6 

ESPINOZA v. MONTANA DEPT. OF REVENUE 

ALITO, J., concurring 

in religion which has separated itself from the established 
church,  or  which  holds  tenets  different  from  those  of  the 
prevailing denomination in a kingdom or state”—a heretic.
N.  Webster,  An  American  Dictionary  of  the  English  Lan-
guage  (1828);  see  also  Independence  Institute  Brief  9–16 
  Newspapers 
(collecting  several  similar  definitions). 
throughout  the  country,  including  in  Montana,  used  the
word in similarly pejorative fashion.  See id., at 17–26 (col-
lecting  several  articles).  The  term  was  likewise  used 
against Mormons and Jews.6 

Backers  of  the  Blaine  Amendment  either  held  nativist 
views or capitalized on them.  When Blaine introduced the 
amendment, The Nation reported that it was “a Constitu-
tional  amendment  directed  against  the  Catholics”—while 
surmising that Blaine, whose Presidential ambitions were
known,  sought  “to  use  it  in  the  campaign  to  catch  anti-
Catholic votes.”7  The amendment had its intended galva-
nizing effect.  “Its popularity was so great” that “even con-
gressional  Democrats,”  who  depended  on  Catholic  votes,
“were  expected  to  support  it,”  and  the  congressional  floor 
debates were rife with anti-Catholic sentiment, including “a
tirade against Pope Pius IX.”8 

Montana’s  no-aid  provision  was  the  result  of  this  same
prejudice.  When Congress allowed Montana into the Union
in 1889, it still included prominent supporters of the failed
Blaine Amendment.  See Sen. Daines Brief 10–13.  The Act 
enabling Montana to become a State required “[t]hat provi-
sion shall be made for the establishment and maintenance 

—————— 

6 See Natelson, Why Nineteenth Century Bans on “Sectarian” Aid Are
Facially Unconstitutional: New Evidence on Plain Meaning, 19 Federal-
ist Soc. Rev. 98, 104 (2018). 

7 Green, The Blaine Amendment Reconsidered, 36 Am. J. Legal Hist. 

38, 54 (1992) (quoting article; internal quotation marks omitted). 

8 DeForrest,  An  Overview  and  Evaluation  of  State  Blaine  Amend-
ments: Origins, Scope, and First Amendment Concerns, 26 Harv. J. L. &
Pub. Pol’y 551, 566, 570 (2003); see also, e.g., Becket Fund Brief 5–11.