8th Cir. dismisses challenge to SD public school’s refusal to reinstate busing to a private school
How Appealing reports that the 8th Circuit dissmissed the suit on standing grounds. A South Dakota public school district bussed students to a private religious school, but stopped doing so after encountering liability concerns and obtaining opinions by the Attorney General who cited South Dakota’s Blaine Amendment among other things as grounds to discontinue the practice.
The opinion in Pucket v. Hot Springs School District No. 23-2, No. 07-2651 (8th Cir. May 23, 2008) reports:
The Puckets claimed that the decision not to bus Bethesda students violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Their complaint, which was served on the School District on May 8, 2003, alleged that the School District violated the Equal Protection and Free Exercise Clauses of the Constitution by denying Bethesda students busing based on their religion, that the School District violated the Free Speech Clause of the Constitution by denying Bethesda students busing because it teaches from a religious viewpoint, and that the School District violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution by denying Bethesda students busing based on the South Dakota Constitution provisions,
which it claimed was “applied to disfavor all faiths deemed ‘sectarian.’” The State intervened to defend the constitutionality of the South Dakota Constitution provisions.