Locke v. Davey

In Locke v. Davey (2004), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of “no-funding provisions” in Washington State's constitution, as applied to a student who attended a religiously affiliated institution of higher learning. Such no-funding provisions are often referred to as “Blaine Amendments,” after Senator James K. Blaine of Maine, who unsuccessfully introduced a constitutional amendment to limit governmental aid to “sectarian” or religious schools in 1876. In Davey, however, the Court specifically asserted that the constitutional provision underlying the dispute was not a Blaine Amendment, but rejected the claim that state officials violated the student's First Amendment rights in denying him a scholarship because he wished to study devotional theology.