Thomas v. Douglas County School District

This lawsuit, in which ACLU lawyers participated as intervenors, is closely related to the ACLU’s challenge to the Choice Scholarship Pilot Program, the voucher program adopted by the Douglas County School District (DCSD) in 2011 that would channel public money to private religious schools.

In 2015, after four years of litigation, ACLU lawyers welcomed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that the DCSD voucher program violates the state constitution. The school district and the Institute for Justice, which represented parents who wanted to use taxpayer money to send their children to religious schools, then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. They argued that the Colorado Constitution’s ban on funding religious schools violates the First Amendment right to religious freedom.

In early 2016, while the petition for Supreme Court review was pending, the school district adopted a "new" voucher program that included only secular private schools. Lawyers for the Institute for Justice, again representing parents who wanted a taxpayer-funded subsidy to send their children to religious schools, then sued the school district in federal district court. They argued that the exclusion of religious schools from the "new" voucher program discriminates against religion, in violation of the First Amendment.

ACLU lawyers, representing the same taxpayers who successfully challenged the 2011 voucher program in the Colorado Supreme Court, moved to intervene in this federal court lawsuit. The motion notes that the parent plaintiffs and the defendant school district are on the same side in the pending U.S. Supreme Court petition and both want the same outcome: a ruling that the federal Constitution compels the funding of religious schools. The ACLU lawyers asked the federal district court to either dismiss the Institute for Justice lawsuit or put the case on hold.

In a separate filing in Denver District Court, ACLU lawyers argued that the “new” voucher program violates the injunction the court issued against the original voucher program in 2011. On August 3, 2016, the Denver District Court granted the ACLU’s motion for enforcement and ruled that the “new” voucher program violates the injunction.

“Douglas County School Board Abandons 1 Of 2 School Voucher Plans,” CPR News, November 16, 2016

"Douglas County's revived voucher program put on hold," Chalkbeat, August 3, 2016

"Judge refuses to expand Douglas County voucher program to include religious schools," The Denver Post, June 9, 2016

"Douglas County's long-running voucher effort hit with new legal challenges," The Denver Post, May 25, 2016

"ACLU of Colorado Opposes Revived Douglas County School Voucher Program," ACLU News, March 15, 2016

"Douglas County voucher program would be revived under proposal — minus religious schools," The Denver Post, March 10, 2016