Mueller et al. v. Allen et al. (463 U.S. 388)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 29, 1983 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 463 U.S. 388 · 103 S. Ct. 3062
- Decided
- June 29, 1983
- Term
- October Term 1982
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. Minnesota allows taxpayers, in computing their state income tax, to deduct certain expenses incurred in providing for the education of their children. Minn. Stat. §290.09, subd. 22 (1982). The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, was not offended by this arrangement. Because this question was reserved in Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U. S. 756 (1973), and because of a conflict between the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and that of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Rhode Island Federation of Teachers v. Norberg, 630 F. 2d 855 (CA1 1980), we granted certiorari. 459 U. S. 820 (1982). We now affirm. Minnesota, like every other State, provides its citizens with free elementary and secondary schooling. Minn. Stat. §§120.06, 120.72 (1982). It seems to be agreed that about 820,000 students attended this school system in the most recent school year. During the same year, approximately 91,000 elementary and secondary students attended some 500 privately supported schools located in Minnesota, and about 95% of these students attended schools considering themselves to be sectarian. Minnesota, by a law originally enacted in 1955 and revised in…
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