Church Appeals After Maine Defies Supreme Court’s Decision on School Choice Funding for Religious Schools

The U.S. Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin (2022) ruled that a law in Maine that barred public funding for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction was unconstitutional.

Maine allowed families who didn’t have access to a local government school to participate in a tuition assistance program to choose alternative private schools as long as the money wasn’t used for religious teaching. The high court said this requirement discriminated against religion.

First Liberty Institute said that in anticipation of Carson, the legislature narrowed the religious exemption to protect only certain religious schools. Without the protection, religious schools face harassing investigations, complaints, and penalties. One such school is Bangor Christian Schools, operated by Crosspoint Church.

First Liberty, the church’s legal counsel, said in the complaint (PDF) that lawmakers “crafted the poison pill explicitly to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson. The poison pill also specifically targeted Crosspoint, who operates the school that two of the Carson plaintiffs attended.”

Crosspoint asked for a preliminary injunction against enforcement, but a lower court denied the motion, although the court “held that this scheme burdens Crosspoint’s religious expression and acknowledged that Crosspoint faces a credible threat of enforcement…”

Crosspoint asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reverse the decision.

“Families should be free to choose the educational option that works best for them without the State’s unconstitutional interference,” said Camille Varone, Associate Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Maine excluded religious schools from its school choice program for over 40 years, but the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that such religious discrimination must end.”

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