New York, NY, October 6, 1999 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today announced the filing of an amicus brief in Mitchell v. Helms, the most important church-state case currently on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This case will be an important barometer of the Supreme Court’s willingness to maintain a wall of separation between church and state," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "As with many church-state issues, the question is subtle. We do not object to educating children about how to use computers, but we strongly object to the potential for any form of government-funded religious indoctrination."

. The specific facts of the case involve the constitutionality of a government program providing computers and other equipment to both secular and religious schools. The case’s broader significance stems from the fact that it may give the court an opportunity to signal its attitude towards vouchers, charitable choice initiatives, and other programs which provide aid to both secular and sectarian institutions.

The League’s brief argues that the federal program at issue, as applied in Louisiana, is unconstitutional because the equipment it provides to parochial schools can easily be used for religious purposes. Previous court decisions have approved certain forms of aid to sectarian schools, including school bus transportation and textbooks on secular subjects. However, the court has never authorized assistance that could directly advance the religious mission of religious schools.

Supporters of the program assert that such aid should be permissible so long as adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the equipment is used for the secular purposes for which it is intended. However, as the brief points out, the level of ongoing monitoring needed to make such safeguards meaningful would inevitably involve an unconstitutional entanglement between the state and the religious schools, and a level of oversight which the schools themselves should find objectionable.

The League took a lead role in assembling the coalition which filed this brief. Among the others were the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Hadassah, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and People for the American Way Foundation. The brief, signed by former U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III, was prepared by the New York office of Morrison & Foerster.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.