WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 21: An exterior view of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 21, 2012 in Washington, DC. (CNN)The Supreme Court will return to the issue of religious liberty Wednesday and consider a Maine school tuition assistance program that parents say violates their religious rights under the First Amendment. The case could mark the court’s latest step to expand religious freedom, a trend bolstered by the addition of three of former President Donald Trump’s nominees and favored by Justice Samuel Alito , who claimed in a 2020 speech that "in certain quarters" religious liberty is "fast becoming a disfavored right." In Wednesday’s case, lawyers for two sets of parents will argue that Maine’s program infringes upon their rights because it bars them from using the funds to send their children to the religious school of their choosing. To make their case, they point to past precedent such as a dispute from 2017 where the court determined that a state could not restrict funds for resurfacing playgrounds from a church-owned preschool based solely on its religious identity. In June 2020, the court held that a state could not exclude families and schools from participating in a student aid […]
