Catholic families’ lawsuit claims school choice restrictions violate First Amendment

Three Catholic families have filed a legal complaint against Georgia’s school choice program, alleging it burdens religious applicants.

The families, represented by the Thomas More Society, want to use the Georgia Promise Scholarship to help fund their children’s Catholic education.

However, the program requires applicants to have previously been enrolled for one year in their local public school and be zoned for a low-performing public school.

The parents – who saw their children suffer in public schools before switching to private schools or homeschooling – argue the requirement is unfair.

“We tried public school with our daughter, and it changed her for the worse,” said plaintiff Joyce McCall. “She hid her faith just to fit in, she struggled to make friends because her peers didn’t share her values and often excluded her.

“We pulled her out and eventually enrolled her in a Catholic hybrid homeschool. Today she’s a missionary,” McCall continued. “Now Georgia wants us to put our son through that same public school before we can even ask for help paying for the kind of education that turned our daughter’s life around. We won’t do that to him.”

The two other plaintiff families have similar stories.

As devout Catholics, they believe they have a moral obligation to provide a religious education for their children – which public schools simply cannot do.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 24, alleges Georgia’s program requirements violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause because “sending their children to a public school would substantially interfere with the religious development of Plaintiffs’ children and pose a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices Plaintiffs wish to instill.”

Furthermore, Georgia already exempts rising kindergartners and military families from the prior public school enrollment requirement.

If there are secular exemptions, why can’t families object on religious grounds?

“The Supreme Court has held time and again that a state can’t condition public benefits on a person’s willingness to forfeit their religious exercise first. But that’s exactly what Georgia does here,” said Nathan Loyd, staff counsel at Thomas More Society, who is representing the plaintiffs.

“Georgia already excuses other families from these same requirements for secular reasons. But it won’t do the same for a family for religious reasons. That’s a clear violation of these families’ religious liberty rights.”

Because the current application window for Promise Scholarships closes Aug. 31, the plaintiffs have also filed an emergency injunction. If granted, the injunction would temporarily prevent Georgia from enforcing its allegedly unconstitutional restrictions.

Georgia’s Promise Scholarship launched in 2025. It has more than 8,300 participants and provides parents $6,500 to use toward their child’s education, including private school tuition, homeschool materials and tutoring.