Americans United, Allies Oppose Parochial School Aid In Louisiana Case.

Government aid to religious schools in the form of computers, software and library books violates the separation of church and state, Americans United has advised the Supreme Court.

In a friend-of-the-court brief in a controversy from Louisiana, Americans United and eight other national organizations urged the justices to uphold a lower court ruling striking down federal "Chapter II" aid to private religious schools.

The groups argue that the program is flawed because there are no safeguards to make certain that the material is not diverted to religious use. The brief points out that in 1982, for example, religious schools in Jefferson Parish used taxpayer money to purchase sectarian titles such as The Illustrated Life of Jesus and A Child's Book of Prayers.

The long-running case, Mitchell v. Helms, was brought originally by Louisiana taxpayers with Americans United's assistance in 1985. After years of delays in the lower courts, it reached the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which declared the program unconstitutional in August of 1998.

Church-state observers say the Helms case is important because it could provide a strong clue about what the high court thinks about vouchers and other forms of direct aid to parochial schools. In recent years, the Supreme Court has upheld several forms of indirect taxpayer aid to sectarian schools but has stopped short of approving direct assistance.