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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
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JUNE 29, 2017
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winners guide
Inside
Vouchers get new life after decision by Supreme Court Dispute over Choice Scholarship Program dates to 2011 BY MIKE DIFERDINANDO MDIFERDINANDO@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A POLO ENDEAVOR:
Event entertains, raises money for charity P9 BUDGET BREAKDOWN: Find out how the school district PAWS FOR CONCERN? plans to spend Residents report seeing bobcats yourEmoney P5 SATURDAY, JULYin15 Highlands Ranch P6 E FR
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9 A.M. – 5 P.M.
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The Douglas County School District’s long-contested school voucher program will get another look from the Colorado Supreme Court following a ruling by the United States Supreme Court on a similar case in Missouri. The justices said the Colorado Supreme Court must reconsider its 2015 ruling that DCSD’s Choice Scholarship Program was unconstitutional. In the case Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, a Missouri church sued after being denied state funding for a preschool playground because the Missouri state Constitution forbids financially supporting a religious institution. On June 26, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the state’s original decision violated the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion by excluding churches from state programs with a secular intent. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. “The exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion. The case focused on the state’s Blaine Amendment, which forbids the state government from using public funds for “any church, sector or denomination of religion.” SEE VOUCHERS, P19
THE BOTTOM LINE
‘Some of the synonyms of happiness included: pleasure, contentment, satisfaction. These words are good, but when you put them up against the synonyms of joy, they seem a little softer.’ Michael Norton, columnist | Page 12 INSIDE
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