Opinion ID: 198494
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Due Process and Speech Clause Claims

Text: Plaintiff-appellants argue that 2951(2) violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Speech Clause of the First Amendment by preventing appellants from using their tuition allotments to expose their children to the educational message which best reflects their morals and values. First, the parents argue that they have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children based on substantive due process rights that arise from Supreme Court decisions. See, e.g., Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925). On that general proposition, we do not disagree.However, that fundamental right does not require the state to directly pay for a sectarian education. Here, the statute does not prevent the parents from doing what they wish; it only prevents the state from helping pay for their wishes. We reject this contention out of hand. Second, on the free speech side, plaintiff-appellants contend that 2591(2) violates plaintiff-appellant's their rights because it denies parents the right to communicate and instruct their children in the areas of religion, morals and ethics which they cannot accomplish in non-sectarian schools. With little more than academic articles to bolster their view, we find this claim to be meritless as well.