A Supreme Court friend-of-the-court brief filed recently by freshly sworn-in Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar may prove that President Joe Biden ‘s administration is determined to reverse every last policy decision of the predecessor Trump administration, even on issues of religious liberty. The Court will hear on December 8 a case brought by Christian parents who live in Waterville and Bangor, Maine, and who enroll their children in private schools that provide religious instruction ( Carson v. Makin ). Under Maine law, the students’ tuitions would be paid by the State if the schools were "nonsectarian." The Christian parents claimed in a federal lawsuit that disqualifying "sectarian" schools and religiously observant parents from governmentally funded tuition assistance violates the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. This challenge has been made twice before in Maine federal court. Under then-governing Supreme Court precedent, the federal trial and appellate courts in Maine previously rejected the parents’ constitutional argument. But recent Supreme Court decisions—particularly, the 7-2 decision in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (2017)—expanded the scope of the Free Exercise Clause. The Roberts Court declared that the "religious character" of an institution, even a church, may not constitutionally disqualify it from […]
