WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Maine may exclude religious schools that offer sectarian education from a state tuition program. The case, Carson v. Makin, No. 20-1088, is broadly similar to one from Montana decided by the court last year. In that case, the court ruled that states must allow religious schools to participate in programs that provide scholarships to students attending private schools. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , No. 18-1195, said a provision of Montana’s Constitution banning aid to schools run by churches ran afoul of the federal Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion by discriminating against religious people and schools. “A state need not subsidize private education,” he wrote. “But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.” But the Montana decision turned on the schools’ religious status rather than their curriculums. There may be a difference, Chief Justice Roberts said, between an institution’s religious identity and its conduct. “We acknowledge the point,” he wrote, “but need not examine it here.” In urging the Supreme […]
