Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on September 25, 2025

BOISE, ID – A federal judge ruled Monday that Truth Family Bible Church’s First Amendment rights were violated when Sage International School canceled the church’s lease, over concerns that it defied the Idaho Constitution’s prohibition on aid to religious groups.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge David Nye’s ruling concludes a lawsuit that spanned more than a year and tested the scope of Idaho’s Blaine Amendment. One of dozens of “no-aid provisions” in state constitutions across the United States, the Blaine Amendment prohibits religious organizations from receiving taxpayer resources. For decades, it served as a roadblock to legislation that would subsidize religious schooling. 

Monday’s ruling didn’t weigh in on the Blaine Amendment’s constitutionality broadly — only whether its implementation in this instance infringed on the church’s First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit centered on a former lease agreement between Truth Family Bible Church, a Baptist congregation in Canyon County, and Sage International, a public charter school with campuses in Boise and Middleton. Truth Family rented the gymnasium at Sage’s Middleton campus for Sunday services until last year, when Sage canceled the lease.

At the time, Sage was applying for about $15 million in bonds to finance facilities upgrades through the Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA), the state’s bonding authority. IHFA attorneys flagged the Truth Family lease as a potential breach of the Blaine Amendment: A church would be using facilities upgraded by publicly funded bonds.

Nye ruled Monday that this was a “lapse in judgment.” The church would have “only incidentally benefited from the bond-improved facilities,” Nye wrote, and the bond proceeds would not have been given directly to a religious group. 

“IHFA and Sage’s motivations for terminating Truth Family’s lease, whether reasonable or not, were still a violation of Truth Family’s constitutional rights,” Nye wrote.

Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative law group that specializes in religious freedom and other hot-button political issues, represented Truth Family. Coeur d’Alene-based attorney Katherine Hartley argued that using the Blaine Amendment to cancel the church’s lease violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise, Establishment and Free Speech clauses.

Nye agreed with all three First Amendment claims. The decision to cancel the lease wasn’t neutral toward religion, he wrote, and indicated a “preference for non-religion.” It also “effectively stifled” the church’s religious speech. Sage had also leased space to a secular music group, which wasn’t flagged in the school’s bond application.

Hartley told Idaho Education News that she and her clients are “thrilled” by the decision.

“No church, religious institution or person of faith should be punished or disqualified for being religious,” she said by email.

Truth Family’s initial complaint argued that the Blaine Amendment “discriminates against religion on its face,” and it asked the judge to declare the provision facially unconstitutional, which would mean it violates constitutional rights in all cases, not just this one.

Hartley didn’t lay out an argument for the facial challenge, however. In a footnote to his ruling, Nye wrote that he didn’t consider the constitutionality of the Blaine Amendment broadly. Instead, he only weighed whether Sage and IHFA’s implementation violated the church’s rights in this case.

The narrow ruling likely won’t significantly impact wider debates about church-state separations and private school choice. Republican policymakers this year enacted Idaho’s first private school choice program, a tax credit that covers tuition at religious schools. Opponents last week filed a lawsuit to block the program, although their argument focused on a separate provision in the Idaho Constitution, not the Blaine Amendment.

But Monday’s ruling should ease public school leaders who are renting facilities to churches, a practice that’s not uncommon across the state.

Nye agreed with Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office, which argued that the Truth Family’s lease shouldn’t have qualified as giving “aid” to a religious organization in violation of the Blaine Amendment. Labrador’s office intervened in the case but didn’t represent IHFA or Sage International.

“We’re pleased with this outcome,” Labrador said through a spokesman Wednesday. “Government agencies cannot discriminate against religious organizations simply because they’re religious. Truth Family Bible Church deserved the same treatment as any secular group, and we’re glad the court recognized this.”

Givens Pursley, a Boise law firm, represented IHFA. The firm argued that IHFA was following Idaho precedent when it flagged the church’s lease as problematic. In 1974, the Idaho Supreme Court found that bond proceeds to finance a religious hospital violated the Blaine Amendment.

Jason Lantz, a spokesman for the bonding authority, said Wednesday that IHFA appreciated the court’s decision on a “complex and difficult issue.”

“Idaho Housing’s goal has been — and is — to comply with state and federal law in our bond financing activities,” Lantz said by email. “We welcome the legal clarity the court’s ruling provides, helping to ensure that this type of issue doesn’t arise in the future.”

A Sage International spokesperson declined to comment.