State of West Virginia, Katie Switzer, and Jennifer Compton v. Travis Beaver, Wendy Peters, David L. Roach, State Superintendent of Schools, and L. Paul Hardesty, President of the West Virginia Board of Education

Summary

This document is a dissenting opinion by Chief Justice Hutchison in a West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case concerning the constitutionality of the Hope Scholarship Act. The dissent argues that the West Virginia Constitution requires the Legislature to provide education through a system of free public schools and therefore prohibits subsidizing private education through the program. It further contends that the Act should be subject to, and fails, strict-scrutiny review.

Holdings

1. In the dissent's view, Article XII, Section 1 of the West Virginia Constitution requires the Legislature to provide education through a system of free schools and therefore prohibits the Hope Scholarship Act's diversion of public funds to subsidize privately owned schools.
2. In the dissent's view, governmental action that denies or infringes West Virginia's fundamental constitutional right to education is subject to strict scrutiny, requiring the government to establish that the challenged law uses the least restrictive means of achieving a compelling state interest.
3. The dissent would reject the federal Salerno 'no set of circumstances' formulation as controlling in a facial challenge based on the West Virginia Constitution and would instead apply the substantive constitutional test dictated by the nature of the challenge.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Hope Scholarship Act violates Article XII, Section 1 of the West Virginia Constitution by funding private education rather than providing education through a system of free public schools.
2. Whether the Hope Scholarship Act infringes the fundamental constitutional right to a thorough and efficient system of free public schools and therefore must satisfy strict scrutiny.
3. Whether the federal 'no set of circumstances' standard from United States v. Salerno governs a facial challenge under the West Virginia Constitution.
4. Whether the expressio unius est exclusio alterius canon supports the conclusion that the West Virginia Constitution's specification of a system of free schools excludes public subsidies for private educational systems.

Disposition

other