This past Wednesday, arguments were heard by the Supreme Court in regards to a case come out of Maine that concerns two very intense matters of debate, religious freedom and school choice, and the court is very unsure about a new school tuition program out in Maine that makes a point to ban all sectarian schools from making use of it.
As reported by Ballotpedia, the case is named Carson v. Makin and talks about a program that was created by the Maine State Legislature, which sought to give tuition assistance for students to attend private or public schools either inside or outside of Maine. “Private schools labeled as sectarian by the state were not approved for funding,” stated the outlet.
At first, one U.S. district court took the side of the state of Maine on the issue. Parents have taken the matter to federal court and “argued that the exclusion of religious schools from Maine’s tuition-assistance program likewise violates the free exercise clause,” read a SCOTUS Blog.
As reported by SCOTUS Blog, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit “rejected the parents’ challenge to the Maine program,” citing the fact that the new law from Maine “does not bar schools from receiving funding simply based on their religious identity.”
Instead, the court of appeals explained, the exclusion examines “what the school teaches through its curriculum and related activities,” and the law prohibits schools from receiving funding because of the “religious use” to which they would put the funds. The law, the court of appeals concluded, “merely reflects Maine’s refusal to subsidize religious exercise.”
Two sets of parents carried the case up to the Supreme Court with the hope of inciting a review on it. The high court agreed to hear the case around the new program earlier this year.
The direct question put forth to the court by the petitioners was:
Does a state violate the Religion Clauses or Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution by prohibiting students participating in an otherwise generally available student-aid program from choosing to use their aid to attend schools that provide religious, or “sectarian,” instruction?
This case will look back on precedent from a decision back in 2020 from Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, in which the “Court held that a state may not exclude families and schools from participating in a student-aid program because of a school’s religious status.” However, the petitioners stated that the court system “acknowledged, but did not resolve, the question of whether a state may nevertheless exclude families and schools based on the religious use to which a student’s aid might be put at a school.”
As discussed by CNN in the wake of the arguments being heard on Wednesday, the high court was unsure about the Maine program that seeks to ban specific religious schools from enrollment in the program.
“Conservative justices such as Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh suggested that if a state makes the choice to provide a public benefit, it can’t exclude schools based on the fact that they teach the curriculum through the lens of faith,” noted the news source.
While arguing on behalf of the petitioners, Michael Bindas stated to the court this past Wednesday, “Maine’s sectarian exclusion discriminates based on religion. Like all discrimination based on religion, it should be subjected to strict scrutiny and held unconstitutional unless Maine can show that it is necessary to achieve a compelling government interest.”
In response, Justice Stephen Breyer spoke about his issues with getting involved in any case concerning religious freedom and schooling.
Breyer stated, “And what’s worrying me is — is that if the school — if the state must give money to the schools, they’re going to get into all kinds of religious disputes. … And religious beliefs, of course, are — are very sincere and held very strongly. And so there was a reason why this Court’s cases have said we do not want to get into a situation where the state is going to pay for the teaching of religion by religious — you know, practicing religious organizations, and — and that seems to me to stick its head up in a lot of different aspects of this case.”
Bindas stated, “This program does not fund schools. And if religious schools were allowed to participate, it does not fund schools. It funds families.”
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