DOJ JOINS CHALLENGE TO NEW MEXICO’S RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE SCHOOL OPENINGShttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/doj-joins-challenge-to-new-mexicos-restriction-on-private-school-openings.phpIn response to the Wuhan coronavirus, New Mexico has limited the capacity at which schools are allowed to operate. Public schools are permitted to operate at 50 percent of capacity. Private schools are allowed to operate only at 25 percent.
Given this severe limitation on its ability to operate, one academy decided not to open, but instead to rely on instruction online. The father of a student at that school filed a lawsuit alleging that New Mexico violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by using one rule for public schools and another for private ones.
Today, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case. It argues that under Supreme Court law, parents’ educational choices for their children are a fundamental constitutional right, and that New Mexico has no grounds for abridging that right by adopting stricter rules for private schools than for public schools.
New Mexico defends the use of different rules apparently on the theory that public schools have greater oversight requirements than private ones. However, the rule seems to preclude private schools from operating at 50 percent capacity even if they adopt the same precautionary practices as public schools.
Given how many private schools are religious, this unequal treatment is probably anti-religious bigotry as well as trying to kill some of PS' competitors.
