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VJLLANCYVA LAW REVJEW GNLJNE: TOLLE LEC4E 70 VJLL. L. REV. TOLLE LEC+E I
Comment
CAN'T BLAINE A STATE FOR TRYING: WRITING A CONSTITUTIONAL
BLAINE AMENDMENT AFTER CARSON V. MAKIN
RY STRATTONV
I. THE BLAINE GAME: INTRODUCTION TO BLAINE-STYLE AMENDMENTS
When Michigan residents Jill and Joseph Hile applied for tax benefits to fund
their children's education, they inadvertently stumbled into a quagmire of
constitutional law.1 The Hiles were parents of elementary and secondary
schoolchildren, whom they wished to educate at private, religious schools.2
Michigan's tax code allows parents like the Hiles to fund special savings plans and
make tax-deductible withdrawals to pay for education expenses.3 The Hiles wished
to use this tax benefit to offset the costs of their children's private, religious
education.4 However, they soon discovered that an amendment to Michigan's
* J.D. Candidate, 2026, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law; A.B., 2023,
Lafayette College. This Comment is dedicated to my family and friends for their unwavering
support. Additionally, this Comment is dedicated to Professor Bruce Allen Murphy for igniting
my interest in First Amendment law during my time as an undergraduate. Thank you to my fellow
members of the Villanova Law Review for their assistance in preparing this Comment.
1 See Hile v. Michigan, No. 21-CV-829, 2022 WL 21416529, at *1 (W.D. Mich. Sept. 30, 2022)
(describing the background leading to the litigation); see also McCarley Elizabeth Maddock, Note,
Blame in the Joints: The History of Blaine Amendments and Modern Supreme Court Religious _Uberty Doctrine
in Education, 18 DUKE J. CONST. L. & PUB. POL'Y 195, 195 (2023) (describing the Free Exercise
and Establishment Clauses as a confusing doctrinal web).
2 See Hile, 2022 WL 21416529, at *1 (describing the factual background of plaintiffs and the
education they sought for their children).
3 See MICH. COMP. LAWS § 390.1477(2) (2025) (allowing citizens to open savings accounts to
pay qualified higher education expenses of certain beneficiaries); see also Shajaka Shelton, Supreme
Court Denies to Hear Challenge to Michigan School Funding Amendment, WLNS 6 NEWS (Oct. 9, 2024,
11:05 PM), https://www.wlns.com/news/supreme-court-denies-to-hear-challenge-to-michigan-
school-funding-amendment/ [https://perma.cc/PV3J-NQ7U] (identifying plaintiffs as five
families wishing to use the Michigan Education Savings Program to send their children to private
religious school).
4 See Hile, 2022 WL 21416529, at *1 (describing the factual background of the case); see also
Holly Wetzel, U.S. Supreme Court Denies Blaine Amendment Challenge, MACKINAC CTR. FOR PUB.
POL'Y (Oct. 7, 2024), https://www.mackinac.org/pressroom/2024/us-supreme-court-denies-
blaine-amendment-challenge [https://perma.cc/YSQ5-D9PN] (describing the factual background
of litigation, including the Hiles being prohibited from using funds saved through the Michigan
Education Savings Program . . . to help offset the cost of K-12 private school tuition). Because
they were not eligible for the Michigan Education Savings Program, the tax deductions the Hiles
received upon depositing the money into the 529 accounts the Act creates would be reversed. See
Shelton, supra note 3 (considering the implications of being ineligible). They would then need to
repay their tax benefits to the state. Id.
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