The vote was 6 to 3, with the three liberal judges on the court disagreeing. The case of Carson v. Makin, No. 20-1088, arose from an unusual program in Maine, which requires rural communities without public secondary schools to care for the education of their young residents in one of two ways. They can sign contracts with nearby public schools or pay tuition at a private school chosen by the parents if it is, under state law, “a non-religious school under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Two families in Maine who send or want to send their children to religious schools have challenged the law, saying it violates their right to practice their religion freely. One of the schools in question, Temple Academy in Waterville, Maine, says it expects its teachers to “incorporate biblical principles into their teaching in every subject” and teaches students to “spread the word of Christianity.” The other, Bangor Christian Schools, says it seeks to develop “within each student a Christian worldview and a Christian philosophy of life.” The two schools “sincerely admit to discriminating against homosexuals, transgender people and non-Christians,” the Maine Supreme Court said in a statement. The case was broadly similar to Montana’s 2020 Espinoza v. Montana Revenue. In that case, the court ruled that states should allow religious schools to participate in programs that provide scholarships to students attending private schools. Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the Montana case, said a provision in the state Constitution that prohibits aid to church-run schools violates the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the free practice of religion. discriminating against religious people and schools. “A state does not need to subsidize private education,” the judge wrote. “But once a state decides to do so, it can not exclude some private schools just because they are religious.” But Montana’s decision focused on the religious status of the schools, not on their curricula. There may be a difference, said Chief Justice Roberts, between an institution’s religious identity and its conduct. “We recognize the issue,” he wrote, “but we do not need to look at it here.” The new Maine case solves this open question. The Supreme Court has long ruled that states may choose to provide assistance to religious schools alongside other private schools. The question in the Montana and Maine cases was the opposite: do the states of May refuse to provide such assistance if it is made available to other private schools?
