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The ACLU-NH challenged the constitutionality of the Education Tax Credit Program program which gives businesses tax deductions in exchange for donations to scholarship organizations which pay for tuition at religious and other private schools; the schools can use those funds with no state oversight.

The Education Tax Credit Program allows businesses to reduce their tax liability by receiving an 85 percent tax credit in exchange for donations made to K-12 scholarship organizations which will pay for tuition at religious and other private schools.  Since there is no state oversight of the schools receiving funds, religious schools will be able to use the donations for religious instruction, indoctrination, and religiously-based discrimination.  The New Hampshire Constitution specifically provides that “no person shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the schools of any sect or denomination” and that “no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools or institutions of any religious sect or denomination.”  The Complaint challenging the constitutionality of this Program can be found here.

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“[T]his Court should … conclude that … [a] trial court cannot issue a sentence of life without parole under Article 33 of the New Hampshire Constitution. The world has recognized the cruelty of juvenile life-without-parole sentences, which is precisely the reason the sentence has been extinguished worldwide. By any measure, the challenged punishment does not comport with human dignity. It is degrading, unacceptable in contemporary society, and excessive. There are reasons why, as a community, we hurt deeper and mourn harder for the death of a child. Life-without-parole sentences functionally take the lives of children before they have had a chance to change and grow into responsible adults. This is why Article 33 mandates the abolition of such sentences in New Hampshire.” The case will be argued by the parties before the N.H. Supreme Court this summer.