Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Levitt

Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Levitt (1973, 1977, 1980) is a dispute that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court on three separate occasions during a seven-year period. At issue in Levitt was the constitutionality of a New York statute that allowed nonpublic schools to be reimbursed for expenses that they incurred in complying with requirements for the administration and reporting of test results along with other student records.

In the initial round of litigation, a federal trial court in New York issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of a state statute that provided monies directly to nonpublic schools as reimbursement for the provision of required services such as state mandated student testing and record keeping. The court maintained that the ...