Supreme Court: Maine cannot ban religious schools from the curriculum

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a recent series of victories for religious interests by canceling a Maine education program that prevents public funds from going to schools that promote religious education.

The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing about the majority and three of the court’s Liberals in disagreement.

The case involves an unusual program in a small country that affects only a few thousand students. But this could have greater consequences, as a more conservative court eases the constitutional line between church and state.

Under the program, jurisdictions in rural areas too sparsely populated to maintain their own high schools may arrange for nearby schools to educate their school-age children, or the state will pay parents’ tuition to send their children to private schools. But these schools must be non-sectarian, which means they cannot promote a faith or belief system or teach “through the prism of that faith,” according to the state education ministry.

The Supreme Court says subsidizing private education should include religious schools

Roberts said the program could not stand up to the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.

“There is nothing neutral about the Maine program,” he wrote. “The state pays tuition for some students in private schools – as long as the schools are not religious. This is discrimination against religion. “

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, one of the dissidents, replied: “This court continues to dismantle the dividing wall between the church and the state that the Framers struggled to build.

The case Carson v. Makinis similar to that of Montana, ruled by the court in 2020. In this case, the court ruled that states should allow religious schools to participate in programs that provide scholarships to students attending private schools.

Roberts, who wrote about the majority in the case, said: “The state should not subsidize private education. But once the state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools simply because they are religious.