Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf
Page Number: 45.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

11 

ALITO, J., concurring 

convention  proposed,  and  the  State  adopted,  a  provision 
with the same material language, prohibiting public aid “for 
any sectarian purpose or to aid any . . . school . . . controlled 
in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.” 
Mont. Const., Art. X, §6(1) (1972) (emphasis added).  A lead-
ing definition of “sect” at the time, as during the Blaine era, 
was “a dissenting religious body; esp: one that is heretical in 
the  eyes  of  other  members  within  the  same  communion.” 
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2052 (1971) 
(emphasis added).

Given the history above, the terms “sect” and “sectarian”
are disquieting remnants.  And once again, there appears
to have been little doubt which schools this provision would 
predominantly  affect.  In  1970,  according  to  the  National
Center  for  Educational  Statistics,  Montana  had  61  reli-
giously  affiliated  schools.  Forty-five  were  Roman  Catho-
lic.19    Not  only  did  the  convention  delegates  acknowledge
the no-aid provision’s original anti-Catholic intent, but the 
Montana Supreme Court had only ever applied the provi-
sion once—to a Catholic school, and one that had “carrie[d] 
a  sizeable  portion  of  the  total  educational  load”  in  Ana-
conda, Montana.  State ex rel. Chambers v. School Dist. No. 
10 of Deer Lodge Cty., 155 Mont. 422, 430, 472 P. 2d 1013, 
1017  (1970)  (per curiam).  The  Montana  Catholic  Confer-
ence also voiced concerns about access to school funds, and 
a convention delegate proposed removing the no-aid provi-
sion’s  restriction  on  “indirect”  aid.    See  Convention  Tr. 
—————— 
Transcript, p. 2012 (Mont. Legislature and Legislative Council) (Conven-
tion Tr.) (statement of Delegate Schiltz); see also, e.g., id., at 2010 (state-
ment  of  Delegate  Harbaugh)  (recognizing  the  provision  as  a  Blaine 
Amendment, which “espoused the purpose of the Know-nothing Party”); 
id., at 2011 (statement of Delegate Toole) (recognizing the provision as a 
Blaine  Amendment);  id.,  at  2013  (statement  of  Chairman  Graybill) 
(same); id., at 2027 (statement of Delegate Campbell) (same); id., at 2030 
(statement of Delegate Champoux) (same). 

19 See  Nat.  Center  for  Educational  Statistics,  Statistics  of  Nonpublic 
Elementary and Secondary Schools 1970–71, pp. 32–33 (1973) (Table 1).