By Mike Donoghue
A federal judge has given permission to the Mid Vermont Christian School to file an amended discrimination lawsuit against state and local education leaders while also challenging Vermont’s new controversial education law known as Act 73.
Senior Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford gave the green light in a four-page decision on Monday that approved the request filed by the school in Quechee in November.
Mid Vermont had sought:
- The addition of a new claim under Vermont’s Act 73 — the recently enacted school funding legislation restricting tuition payments to independent schools — on the grounds that it violates the free exercise clause of the First Amendment
- The addition of claims of personal liability against Jennifer Samuelson, chair of the Vermont State Board of Education, Zoie Saunders, the secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education, and Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association.
- A revised claim against the Waits River School Board in Corinth by different parents seeking tuition payments to Mid Vermont.
Crawford noted the defendants did not object to the amendment concerning the newly enacted funding statute.
“Their opposition is focused on Plaintiffs’ decision to seek to impose personal liability on the cabinet-level state officials charged with implementing Act 73 as well as defendant Nichols…” Crawford said.
“Defendant Waits River argues separately that, as a school district, it is obligated to follow state law — including Act 73 — and cannot be liable for doing so.”
Crawford heard legal arguments for about one hour on Dec. 17 and had hinted he was likely to grant the request. He promised the lawyers he would put his thoughts into writing.
He noted Mid Vermont could withdraw the case and start over again with the amended lawsuit that it had shared earlier with the defendants and still end up with the same outcome.
The defense lawyers offered little objection.
The original civil lawsuit was filed in November 2023, but most of it was placed on hold when the two sides battled over a possible preliminary injunction. It eventually ended before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City, which issued a brutal opinion slamming the way Mid Vermont Christian had been treated.
Crawford noted “The rule requires the district court to ‘freely give leave when justice so requires.’”
He said there was no undue prejudice to the defendants in granting the motion.
“The court can quickly reject allegations of delay and bad faith. This case remains at a very early stage of development due to the time required to resolve the preliminary injunction issue. The interlocutory appeal effectively stayed motion practice and discovery Neither side can be charged with delay or with bad faith. There have been no prior amendments.”
He said part of the requested amendment was timely.
“Plaintiffs could not have attacked the constitutionality of Act 73 any earlier since it was recently enacted. Although some of the defendants assert that allowing amendment will require them to expend resources in the expanded litigation, this is not a case where plaintiffs have unleashed a new theory ‘on the eve of trial’ or after the parties have already prepared analysis of the case through the summary judgment lens,” Crawford explained.
The new law excludes the private Christian school in Quechee and all religious approved independent schools in Vermont from town tuition funding and other public benefits.
The request to amend the two-year-old lawsuit came after the three-judge panel in New York City granted a preliminary injunction in September against the VPA and Nichols, its executive director.
The stinging decision noted the religious discrimination imposed by the VPA and Nichols, court records noted. The judges ordered them to reinstate MVCS as a full member pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
The appeals court ruled the statewide association discriminated against Mid Vermont Christian when the school opted not to play in the girls state high school basketball tournament. The school filed an objection when its first round opponent, Long Trail School in Dorset, was using a transgender player, the court noted.
Mid Vermont said at the time — and still maintains — it had a serious concern that the transgender student, who was more than six-feet tall, created an unsafe and unfair situation for its girls, court records said.
Mid Vermont’s lawyer Ryan Tucker, had maintained the named defendants would not face any disadvantage because they never filed a written response to the initial lawsuit in U.S. District Court during the past two years.
Nichols and the VPA, along with Saunders and Samuelson had led the fight to block the amendment.
Mid Vermont has maintained that the religious discrimination by the state continues.
Several weeks after the 2025-26 school year began, two MVCS students were told that they could not participate in the Vermont Early College Program. The enrichment program normally allows high school students to take free classes at state universities. The students were denied because of enrollment at MVCS even when their parents pay state and local taxes.
Mid Vermont and two families initially filed the discrimination lawsuit against various state and local education officials for expelling the Christian school and its students from the state’s athletics association. One family eventually dropped out of the lawsuit, but now Mid Vermont lawyers say in their motion, which was filed Friday, that another family wants to be added as a plaintiff. They claim they also face harm from the discrimination.
The plaintiffs are supported by The Alliance Defending Freedom, a nationally recognized law firm known for its First Amendment fights. They have won a handful of discrimination lawsuits in Vermont in recent years.
Quechee School claims religious discrimination by state
The 2023 banishment by the VPA was seen as unprecedented. The Windsor County school had been a loyal dues-paying and active member for 28 years, court records show. No other school ever was banished fully from the VPA.
Mid Vermont is a private Christian pre-K through grade 12 school founded in 1987. It draws its students from nearby counties in the Twin State region.
“The school believes that forcing girls to compete against biological males would affirm that those males are females, in violation of its religious beliefs,” the appeals court said in September.
“We conclude that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the VPA’s expulsion of Mid Vermont was not neutral because it displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs,” the court ruled.
The judges said they found open hostility by the VPA toward Mid Vermont Christian. The court also noted the VPA failed to follow its own rules and policies in its rush to dismiss the Christian school from the statewide association.
The ruling overturned a decision by Crawford that allowed the banishment to remain in place while the two sides battle in court. The appeals court ruled the school can now participate in VPA-sponsored events while the case continued, but it is unclear if they have been allowed to enter any VPA-sponsored athletic events.
Crawford initially denied a request by the Plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction in June 2024. They appealed and also asked for an injunction pending the appeal, but Crawford said no again.
It was at that point that Crawford had questioned why the VPA banned MCVS from all activities. The judge helped broker a plan during a court hearing to allow Mid Vermont students to participate in non-athletic VPA sponsored events, including spelling bees, science fairs, drama festivals and debate competitions. The VPA was cool to the idea, but eventually agreed to the idea before the court hearing ended.
“In sum, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in establishing that Defendants acted with hostility toward Mid Vermont’s religious beliefs. The VPA Executive Director publicly castigated Mid Vermont — and religious schools generally — while the VPA rushed to judgement on whether and how to discipline the school,” the judges wrote.
“In upholding the expulsion, the VPA doubled down on that hostility by challenging the legitimacy of the school’s religious beliefs. And as noted above, the punishment imposed was unprecedented, overbroad and procedurally irregular,” the appeal judges said in their 19-page decision.
“Those facts strongly support the inference that Mid Vermont’s religious objection was not considered with the neutrality that the Free Exercise Clause requires,” they said.