The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that private religious schools have the right to receive public funds, which undermines the separation of church and state. The decision was made by the conservative court, which sided with two Christian families.
The Supreme Court of the United States overturned a lower court ruling and upheld the constitutional right for human beings to be religious and to exercise their religion freely.
The court agreed that taxpayer money should flow to religious schools in a majority opinion, with the liberal justices disagreeing.
Maine provides a tuition program for students who want to attend private high schools in rural areas. However, they are drawing the line at religious schools.
Roberts argued that Maine’s school program operates to identify and exclude schools on the basis of their religious beliefs.
Resistant to change, the plaintiffs wanted financial assistance in order to send their children to two Christian schools that maintain policies against students on the grounds of religious discrimination.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
The Supreme Court ruled that states have to fund religious education with no regard for the establishment clause concerns of federal law.
The court ruled that state officials can review the scholarship applications of religious schools and demand information about the religious affiliation of faculty. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal justice, is opposed to this ruling and says it violates the Church/State separation stated in the Constitution.
With its conservative majority, the Supreme Court has expanded religious liberties. They have also been more receptive to claims that the government is hostile toward religion by allowing these types of cases to be heard in court.
Groups like conservative and religious advocacy organizations want more access to education through money from public resources.
‘values we hold dear’
Aaron Frey, Maine’s Attorney General, was disturbed that the Supreme Court found that parents had the right to force their children to be educated in schools that are at odds with the beliefs of society.
Public money should not be used to promote discrimination.
Bangor Christian Schools teaches that the Bible is the truth and in classes students are taught about Islamic Beliefs. Bangor Christian Schools does no hire gay teachers, or transgender students.
Two sets of parents — David and Amy Carson, and Troy and Angela Nelson — sued Maine in 2018. The Nelsons wanted to use tuition aid to send their son to a Christian school called Temple Academy in Waterville, but instead used it for a secular private high school. The Carsons paid out-of-pocket to send their daughter to Bangor Christian Schools. As she has graduated now, they do not follow the case any more.
After the ruling, Amy Carson said, “We always knew that we would be unlikely to benefit from a victory but felt strongly that Maine’s discrimination against religious schools and the families who choose them violated the Constitution and needed to end.”
Stephen Breyer wrote that public funding of religious activity might cause a divide in society, because some people think it would give the government preference to one religion over another.
To prevent taxpayer money from going to religious beliefs they do not share, Justice Breyer said believers in minority religions might see injustice and oppression.
The court has previously decided that states do not have to subsidize private schools, but because Maine chose to, the state should not be able to deny funding to religious schools. The state has other options such as expanding its public school system.
“The court only appears concerned with discrimination when conservative Christians make claims, as it often does in ways that further discrimination,” said Rachel Laser (head of the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State).
The Minnesota court ruled that a law that prohibits prospective religious schools from applying for public funding violates the Equal Protection Clause in the US Constitution. The 2020 Montana ruling established this precedent for educational tax credits.
President Biden’s administration had backed Maine in the case
