Supreme Court says Maine cannot deny public funds to schools that promote religious instruction

Source: Washington Post

COURTS & LAW

Supreme Court says Maine cannot deny public funds to schools that promote religious instruction

By Robert Barnes
June 21, 2022 at 10:45 a.m. EDT

The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a recent streak of victories for religious interests, striking down a Maine tuition program that does not allow public funds to go to schools that promote religious instruction. ... The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing for the majority and the court's three liberals in dissent. ... The case involves an unusual program in a small state that affects only a few thousand students. But it could have greater implications as the more conservative court relaxes the constitutional line between church and state.

Under the program, jurisdictions in rural areas too sparsely populated to support public schools of their own can arrange to have nearby schools teach their school-age children, or the state will pay tuition to parents to send their kids to private schools. But those schools must be nonsectarian, meaning they cannot promote a faith or belief system or teach "through the lens of this faith," in the words of the state's department of education.

Roberts said that program could not survive the court's scrutiny. ... "There is nothing neutral about Maine's program," he wrote. "The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools -- so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion." ... Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the dissenters, answered: "This Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build."

The case, Carson v. Makin, is broadly similar to one from Montana decided by the court last year. In that case, the court ruled that states must allow religious schools to participate in programs that provide scholarships to students attending private schools. ... Roberts, writing for the majority in the case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, said a provision of Montana's Constitution banning aid to schools run by churches ran afoul of the federal Constitution's protection of the free exercise of religion by discriminating against religious people and schools. (1)

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By Robert Barnes
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined The Post to cover Maryland politics, and he has served in various editing positions, including metropolitan editor and national political editor. He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. Twitter https://twitter.com/scotusreporter

(1) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/21/supreme-court-maine-religious-schools/

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Original post:

Scotus rules 6-3 that Maine's tuition assistance program must cover religous schools

Link to tweet

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See more here: https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/announcement-of-orders-and-opinions-for-tuesday-june-21/

SCOTUSblog:

"Here's the opinion: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf "

"Because the benefits hinge on whether a school is religious, the Chief writes, the Maine program "effectively penalizes the free exercise" of religion."

"Breyer from the dissent:
The First Amendment begins by forbidding the government from "mak[ing] [any] law respecting an establishment of religion." It next forbids them to make any law "prohib- iting the free exercise thereof." The Court today pays almost no attention to the words in the first Clause while giving almost exclusive attention to the words in the second."