Court Opinion

ID: 9884198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:47:28.499276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:36.524572
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE RYAN, specially concurring: I agree with the result reached by my colleagues. However, I would not reach the result by equating the provisions of section 3 of article X of the 1970 constitution with the first amendment of the Federal constitution. The opinion states that the majority view in other jurisdictions holds that the transportation of pupils is considered primarily a health and safety measure for the benefit of the students and that any aid to parochial schools as a result of such transportation is only incidental. On this basis I would uphold the statute in question. This has been the basis upon which other States which have constitutional language as restrictive as that contained in our section 3 of article X have sustained statutes providing transportation to students in parochial schools. (See Annot., 41 A.L.R.3d 344.) These other jurisdictions have not upheld such statutes by holding that the restrictive language of their constitutions conveys the same meaning as do the provisions of the first amendment of the Federal constitution. Clearly it was not the intention of the delegates to the constitutional convention of 1870 that the language of section 3 of article VIII of the constitution of 1870 (which language is identical with that of section 3 of article X of the 1970 constitution) should have the same meaning as the first amendment. The Illinois constitutions of 1818 and 1848 did not contain provisions similar to those found in section 3 of article VIII of the constitution of 1870. However, each of those previous documents did contain a general clause relating to religion similar to that contained in the first amendment. Likewise, in the constitution of 1870 a similar general provision was incorporated in section 3 of article II, which provided: “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination, shall forever be guaranteed; ***. No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.” However, the delegates to the 1870 convention were not satisfied with this general prohibition against supporting or giving preference to any religious denomination. The debates reflect a great concern over aid to sectarian schools, apparently because of some experience in the State of New York. Resolutions were presented to the convention requesting that there be incorporated in the constitution specific prohibitions against the use of public funds for the support of sectarian schools. (1 Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 1870, at 85, 118, 127.) There was submitted to the convention a proposed section which ultimately became section 3 of article VIII. During the debate on this section Delegate Church, in replying to a proposed amendment to the section, stated: “Now the intention of the committee was to make that section so broad and distinct that no appropriations could be made in aid of any of those objects that are mentioned. *** there are various pretexts that might be got up to give aid to them by indirection, if the amendment should be adopted.” The amendment was rejected. 1 Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 1870, at 617. During the course of debate the following substitute for the proposed section was offered and rejected by the convention: “The General Assembly shall pass no law for the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (1 Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 1870, at 626.) The almost identical language of this proposed substitute with that contained in the first amendment of the Federal constitution suggests its source. Its rejection as a substitute for section 3 of article VIII indicates to me that the framers of the constitution of 1870 did not intend that this section have the same meaning as the first amendment but that it be more restrictive insofar as public aid to sectarian schools is concerned. Thus, the constitution of 1870 as finally adopted had two sections concerning church-state relationship: the general religion clause found in section 3 of article II, which has been quoted above and is similar to the prohibitions and protections afforded by the first amendment, and the specific prohibitions against public aid to sectarian schools as contained in section 3 of article VIII of the constitution of 1870. The provisions of this section are: “Neither the general assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the state or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.” These two provisions in the constitution of 1870, considered with the fact that the convention specifically rejected the language of the first amendment when offered as a substitute for the language of section 3 of article VIII, indicate to me that it was the intention of the framers of the constitution of 1870 that the specific prohibitions of section 3 of article VIII should be more restrictive with regard to public aid to sectarian schools than are the general prohibitions of the first amendment. In the 1970 constitution section 3 of article I is identical to section 3 of article II of the constitution of 1870, and section 3 of article X is identical to section 3 of article VIII of the constitution of 1870. Thus in the constitution of 1970, as in the constitution of 1870, we have the general prohibitions similar to those found in the first amendment and the specific prohibition against aid to sectarian schools. The majority opinion indicates that somehow between 1870 and 1970 all of the specific proscriptions of section 3 of article X of the 1970 constitution have become verbiage and have come to mean nothing more than “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — the provisions of the first amendment of the Federal constitution. The opinion quotes extensively from the constitutional debates of 1970, citing these debates as an indication of the intention of the delegates that the meaning of section 3 of article X should be the same as the provisions of the first amendment. To me the quoted portions of the debates do not indicate this. Rather, I view the language of the debates as acknowledging that this subject was a controversial issue which the delegates were reluctant to face. They rejected the substitution of the language of the first amendment for the language of section 3 of article VIII of the constitution of 1870, fearing that this substitution would antagonize a large section of the electorate. The only intention that I can glean from the debates is that the convention attempted to sidestep the issue and to lead the electorate to believe that the specific prohibitions contained in section 3 of article X mean what the language of that section clearly states, while at the same time hoping that this court at some future date will extend the dicta found in Dunn v. Chicago Industrial School for Girls (1917), 280 Ill. 613, and say that this language means no more than the first amendment. This questionable scheme was furthered by the official explanation which the convention adopted for the information of the voters (see Proposed 1970 Constitution-Official Text with Explanation, 7 Record of Proceedings, Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention 2742). If it was the intention of the delegates that this section have the same meaning as the first amendment, why did they not say this in the explanation of this section? Instead, the official explanation states: “This is exactly the same as Article VIII, Section 3 of the 1870 Constitution.” Would a voter, after having read this explanation and before casting his vote for or against the proposed constitution, think that the specific and detailed prohibitions of section 3 of article X were no more restrictive than the general prohibitions of the first amendment? I believe he would not. It was the vote of the People which was required to bring this constitution into existence. I am therefore concerned only with what the voters intended when they voted for the adoption of the constitution, and that intent must be gathered from the clear and specific language of the instrument. I am not concerned with the intent of the delegates to the convention, because I fear that their intention was to evade this controversial issue and to be less than candid with the electorate. I do not believe that the meaning of section 3 of article X of the constitution of 1970 can be forever tied to the construction which has been or which may be placed upon the general language of the first amendment of the Federal constitution. The divergent language used in these two provisions inevitably will lead to a result which will conflict with a specific prohibition of section 3 of article X. Only recently (June 25, 1973) the Supreme Court of the United States in Norwood v. Harrison,---U.S. ---,---, 37 L. Ed. 2d 723, 730, 93 S. Ct. 2804, 2810, stated: “Free textbooks, like tuition grants directed to private school students, are a form of financial assistance inuring to the benefit of the private schools themselves. An inescapable educational cost for students in both public and private schools is the expense of providing all necessary learning materials. When, as here, that necessary expense is borne by the State, the economic consequence is to give aid to the enterprise; ***.” From this language I conclude that furnishing textbooks to students attending parochial schools would constitute a violation of the prohibition of section 3 of article X of our constitution, which proscribes appropriating or paying anything to help support or sustain any school controlled by any church. Yet, under the first amendment the Supreme Court has held that the furnishing of textbooks to students is permissible. Board of Education v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1060, 88 S. Ct. 1923. This different result is possible because not only does section 3 of article X of our constitution prohibit the payment of anything the primary effect of which is to advance religion, as does the first amendment, but it also specifically prohibits any appropriation or payment to help support or sustain a school controlled by a church, whether or not the effect of that payment is to advance religion. Thus, any payment that helps support or sustain such a school would be in violation of the Illinois constitution whereas it may be proper under the first amendment because it does not constitute a payment advancing religion. There are many forms of aid to parochial schools which may ultimately be construed as not advancing religion and thus not in violation of the first amendment. However, unless the last two thirds of article X is ignored such aid to a school controlled by a church would be contrary to the specific prohibitions of the Illinois constitution. For these reasons, I cannot agree that section 3 of article X of the constitution of 1970 is no more restrictive than the first amendment of the Federal constitution.