On Wednesday, June 26, United States District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby issued a ruling that upheld a current law that prohibits state funds from being used as tuition to fund a child’s education at a religious secondary school through Maine’s school choice program. However, Judge Hornby himself acknowledged the case, Carson et al v. Makin , will likely be settled in a higher court. “We are grateful that Judge Hornby moved quickly to issue a ruling just two days after the hearing,” said Institute for Justice senior attorney Tim Keller, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case. “This fight against religious discrimination is headed to the First Circuit and then possibly to the Supreme Court.” In order to understand the ruling issued last week, it is important to understand Maine’s town tuitioning program. Maine’s town tuitioning program was started in 1873, making it the second oldest school choice program in the nation. If a municipality neither maintains a public secondary school nor contracts for secondary school services, current Maine law requires a municipality to pay for a resident student’s tuition to a secondary school, either public or private. However in 1982, the Maine Legislature passed a law […]
