A Win for Religious Liberty in California

Religious freedom’s string of courtroom victories has reached the unlikeliest of places. On October 28, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a discriminatory California law barring religious schools from participating in a special-education program violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. The case, Loffman v. California Department of Education, was brought by Orthodox Jewish families who sought to admit their disabled children to private Jewish schools under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act but found themselves thwarted by California on the grounds that the schools were “sectarian.” In a sharply worded opinion, the court rejected California’s argument and instead sided with the families, affirming their constitutional right to access public benefits without sacrificing their faith commitments.