Wyoming Supreme Court Clears the Way for School Choice Scholarships — ACLJ’s Arguments Helped Get It There

Wyoming families scored a major legal victory on May 14 when the Wyoming Supreme Court unanimously lifted the injunction blocking the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act. This is a win for parental rights – and it’s a win built in part on the constitutional arguments the ACLJ made directly to that court.

When opponents of Wyoming’s school choice program rushed to court to block the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, the ACLJ went into action, filing an amicus brief urging the Wyoming Supreme Court to lift the injunction and let families access the educational opportunities the legislature had already granted them.

The Wyoming Education Association timed its lawsuit to inflict maximum harm – filing suit just before the start of the school year after thousands of families had already signed up for scholarships worth up to $7,000 per student – per year – for private school, homeschooling, tutoring, and other enrichment activities.

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The court agreed with the core legal framework the ACLJ advanced. The ACLJ’s brief centered on two constitutional arguments that the Wyoming Supreme Court ultimately embraced.

First, we argued that the Act does not violate the state constitution’s prohibition on granting funds outside absolute state control. The court agreed, finding that scholarship dollars flow through an account under the direct oversight of the Superintendent of Public Instruction before reaching families.

Second, the ACLJ argued that this program should not be subjected to strict scrutiny review as though it were a school funding case, because it simply isn’t one. The scholarships are funded through the general fund and have no impact on public school finances. The court adopted this reasoning explicitly, ruling that opponents could not claim injury simply because the legislature chose to appropriate money somewhere other than public education.

This victory doesn’t stand alone. It is the latest chapter in the ACLJ’s long history of fighting for school choice and parental rights at every level of the American judicial system. At the U.S. Supreme Court, the ACLJ filed amicus briefs in the landmark cases of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin – both of which established that states cannot exclude religious schools from generally available scholarship and benefit programs.

Those victories laid the constitutional foundation that makes programs like Wyoming’s Steamboat Legacy scholarships possible today. And just last year, the ACLJ filed a crucial amicus brief in Mahmoud v. Taylor, where the Supreme Court recognized parents’ constitutional right to shield their children from government instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

More recently, we filed a vital brief asking the Supreme Court to strike down a California regulation forcing religious schools to make Christian education optional – a direct assault on church autonomy and parental rights.

The thread connecting all of these cases is the same: Parents – not government bureaucracies and certainly not teachers unions – have the fundamental right to direct the education of their children.

Parental rights are fundamental, and no government body can stand between parents and the education their children deserve. This decision reflects a growing judicial recognition that parents – not government bureaucracies – are best positioned to determine what kind of education serves their children. That principle is at the heart of everything the ACLJ does when we defend school choice. Join us in defending that principle: sign our petition.