Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, Afl-Cio v. John H. Norberg

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

The principal question presented by this appeal is whether the district court properly concluded that a Rhode Island statute granting a state income tax deduction for tuition, textbook and transportation expenses incurred in sending dependents to primary and secondary schools in New England contravenes the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. Although judicial responses to the complexities of modern society have transformed the once “high and impregnable” wall erected between church and state by the first amendment, Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67…