In 1996, the state of Ohio introduced a school tuition voucher program for Cleveland residents in lower income areas to use the funds to enroll students in schools of their choice in the surrounding area. In the 1999–2000 academic year, 82 percent of the schools receiving funding from the voucher program had a religious affiliation, and 96 percent of the students in the program attended religious-based schools. Ohio taxpayers filed suit in the federal district court contending that allowing the monies to go to religiously affiliated schools violated the establishment clause of the Constitution; this was affirmed by both the district court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. At the Supreme Court, however, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and four others determined that the program did not violate the establishment clause because it did not mandate that a religious school be attended.