The June 30 Supreme Court decision in Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue is a cause for celebration. It goes against the Blaine Amendment, a failed amendment to the Constitution typical of the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic bigotry of the 1880s. That amendment was supposed to stop government funding of Catholic schools. While it ultimately failed, 37 states have adopted laws that mirror it.

At the time, public schools in the United States were deeply influenced by Protestant denominations. That was one of the reasons for the creation of Catholic private schools. The Blaine Amendment laws were designed to curtail the establishments of Catholic schools that served the emerging Irish and Italian immigrant Catholic communities.