Archbishop Wenski and Bishop Barber on Tuesday said that the court's decision "dealt a blow to the odious legacy of anti-Catholicism in America."
"Blaine Amendments, which are in 37 states' constitutions, were the product of nativism and bigotry," they said of the no-aid clauses. "They were never meant to ensure government neutrality towards religion, but were expressions of hostility toward the Catholic Church."
DeVos issued a warning to Montana and other states with similar no-aid clauses, that "your bigoted Blaine Amendments and other restrictions like them are unconstitutional, dead, and buried."
"Too many students have been discriminated against based on their faith and have been forced to stay in schools that don't match their values," she said.
Becket, a religious freedom legal group which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, also said that "[i]t was high time for the Blaine Amendments to bite the dust."
"Relying on century-old state laws designed to target Catholics to exclude all people of faith was legally, constitutionally, and morally wrong," said Diana Verm, senior counsel at Becket.
In 2017, the court dealt with a similar clause in Missouri's constitution in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer. There the court issued a narrow ruling in favor of a church-owned playground and its access to a public benefit program for resurfacing.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the legal group that represented the church in that decision, applauded Tuesday's ruling.
"The Supreme Court was right to rule that states can't oust parents and children from neutral benefit programs simply because they choose a religious private school," said John Bursch, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy at ADF.
While supporters of the no-aid clause might claim that there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state, that is a faulty understanding of the First Amendment's establishment clause, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurrence.
"Thus, the modern view, which presumes that States must remain both completely separate from and virtually silent on matters of religion to comply with the Establishment Clause, is fundamentally incorrect," Thomas wrote.
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