KEY CASES
Establishment Clause
Maine Scholarship Program Excluding Sectarian Schools
Unconstitutional
In Carson v. Makin, 142 S.Ct. 1987 (2022), the U.S.
Supreme Court struck a tuition assistance program that requires
school districts to transmit payment to the secondary school
— public or private, in-state or out-of-state — that
parents would like their child to attend as long as the school is
nonsectarian. Maine is the most rural state in the union. Not all
school districts operate a public secondary school, so the
legislature responded with this financial aid program. In
administering the program, Maine considered a "sectarian
school to be one that is associated with a particular faith or
belief system and which, in addition to teaching academic subjects,
promotes the faith or belief system with which it is associated
and/or presents the material taught through the lens of this
faith." According to the court, "The State pays tuition
for certain students at
