With mounting concerns regarding the separation of church and state in public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 21, 2022, that the state of Maine’s “nonsectarian” requirement for otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments to parents who live in school districts that do not operate a secondary school of their own violates the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
The case of Carson v. Makin involves a tuition assistance program enacted for parents who live in school districts in the state of Maine that neither operate a secondary school of their own nor contract with a particular school in another district. Under that program, parents designate the secondary school they would like their child to attend, and the school district transmits payments to that school to help defray the costs of tuition; however, Maine has limited tuition assistance payments to “nonsectarian” schools. Two families filed suit because their children attended religious schools in Maine that otherwise met the requirements for the tuition assistance program except for the fact that the schools were sectarian. The parents alleged that the “nonsectarian” requirement violated the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court rejected their constitutional claims and the First Circuit affirmed. The U.S. Supreme Court took the case and held that the “nonsectarian” requirement for otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause.
Here, Maine offers its citizens a benefit: tuition assistance payments for any family whose school district does not provide a public secondary school, yet disqualifies certain private schools from public funding “solely because they are religious.” The Court held that a neutral benefit program in which public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients does not offend the Establishment Clause. The Court found that a State’s anti-establishment interest does not justify enactments that exclude some members of the community from an otherwise generally available public benefit because of their religious exercise. The Court noted that Maine’s decision to continue excluding religious schools from its tuition assistance program involved stricter separation of church and state than the federal Constitution requires, and on the other end, violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Court did note that states need not subsidize private education, but once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.