Earlier this year the state of New Hampshire implemented a program that claimed bolster “educational opportunities” but was actually created in the same vein as Louisiana’s voucher system: with the goal of allowing state funds to find their way into the hands of religious, not public, schools.

The program provided a large tax credit to businesses that contributed to scholarship organizations that paid for tuition at private schools. Though the program was purportedly designed to expand educational opportunities, Justice John M. Lewis held the program violated the state’s constitution because it had the effect of diverting public funds to religious schools.

It would’ve been obvious to any legislator with a clue that this ran afoul of the law. So either the New Hampshire legislators who voted on it didn’t have a clue, or they did have a clue and didn’t care about the law. Either way, boo hiss!

Fortunately, the courts did what they’re supposed to do with policies that violate the Constitution and put a stop to it.

“New Hampshire students, and their parents, certainly have the right to choose a religious education,” the Stafford County Superior Court judge wrote in the ruling. “However, the government is under no obligation to fund ‘religious’ education. Indeed, the government is expressly forbidden from doing so by the very language of the New Hampshire Constitution.”

So happy we have courts checking our elected officials. It is a pity, however, how much time the courts must spend telling Christian legislators to not break the law.