The Blaine Amendment’s Time Is Now
James Blaine was a savvy, late 19th century politician who served in numerous appointed and elected positions in The US government. Hailing from The State of Maine, Blaine served in the US House of Representatives from 1863 until 1876 and was speaker of The House from 1869 to 1875. Upon completion of his term in The House, Blaine then served in The US Senate from 1876 to 1881. Blaine served twice as secretary of state to presidents Jame Garfield and Benjamin Harrison. Blaine sought the Republican nomination to president in 1876, 1880 and 1884, being narrowly defeated in 1884 by Grover Cleveland. Blaine was seasoned and savvy indeed.
In 1875, Blaine saw increasing entanglement of church and state leading him to propose the joint resolution now known as The Blaine Amendment. The Blaine Amendment read as follow:
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any State for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations.
The Blaine Amendment was passed by The House but failed in The Senate.
Could a Constitutional Amendment, crafted almost 150 years ago still be valid in our current society? The answer is definitively yes. The Blaine Amendment still stands as solidly today as it did years ago. Blaine crafted an amendment that clearly endorsed the words of Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson. The Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, The US Constitution and The Bill of Rights have clearly defined the need for separation of church and state, but a small group of conservative Christians continue to want more.
SCOTUS, The President and The US House have all shown their disregard for The Establishment Clause in their quest for Christian religious liberty. SCOTUS in recent cases has shown an agenda to invite and adjudicate religious freedom cases. Whether it’s a Christian coach who can pray publicly with his team post game (Kennedy v. Bremerton), a family that can opt out of specific LGBTQ topics in public schools (Mahmoud v. Taylor) or a religious charity that gets better tax status than a non-religious charity (Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Industry and Review Commission), SCOTUS is bound and determined to use The Free Exercise Clause of The First Amendment to put a knee on the throat of The Establishment Clause of The First Amendment.
The President has shown complete favoritism for Christians in both his words and actions. The establishment of The White House Office of Faith, lead by Christian televangelist Paula White is simply an explicit example of Christian nationalism.
The US House, in the recent budget appropriations bill has written in $5 billion dollars in school vouchers. In states including Ohio and Oklahoma who use school vouchers, education has suffered steep losses. Even in light of these educational losses, and a pending law suit in Ohio against vouchers, Congress still supports parental choice over support for public education. Parental choice is the Christian nationalist code that allows for education payment to be funneled to religious schools.
The Blaine Amendment clearly describes the need and the method for separation of church and state. The push for publicly funded religious education has never been stronger and closer to gaining success. The time for The Blaine Amendment is now.