Fla. Supreme Court orders anti-religious freedom amendments removed from Nov. ballot (Baptist Joint Committee Statement)

The Florida Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that a state commission acted improperly in placing two constitutional amendments harmful to religious liberty on the November ballot.

Taken together, these constitutional amendments (Nos. 7 and 9) would have deleted Florida’s “No-Aid” provision from its Constitution and added language that would severely weaken the strong religious liberty protection that Floridians enjoy. In essence, the proposals would allow public funding of private schools, including religious schools. These proposed amendments were to appear on the general election ballot this November by order of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, a 25-member body appointed by the governor, the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and the Florida Senate President.

The role of the Commission, which meets once every 20 years, is “to recommend statutory and constitutional changes dealing with taxation and the state budgetary process,” and it typically confines itself to such budget and taxation matters that are legitimately within its jurisdiction.

By directing that Amendments 7 and 9 appear on the ballot, the Commission exceeded its authority because these two amendments had, at best, only a tangential connection to “taxation and the state budgetary process,” and in reality were a trojan horse vehicle for radically weakening the separation of church and state in Florida. Several Florida citizens filed a lawsuit making this argument in June, and on Sept. 3 the Florida Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

The Court’s decision, which is final and unappealable, is a resounding victory for religious liberty. K. Hollyn Hollman, General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee, said the Court’s decision keeps in place safeguards that protect the vitality and independence of religious entities.

“The religious freedom we enjoy depends on strong legal protections for the institutional separation of religion and government,” Hollman said. “The court today has rejected an attempt to blur the line between church and state and has protected the religious liberty of all Floridians.”