{"id":1095190,"date":"2021-12-07T15:44:12","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095190"},"modified":"2021-12-07T15:44:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:44:14","slug":"scotus-to-hear-arguments-on-students-using-state-aid-to-attend-christian-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-to-hear-arguments-on-students-using-state-aid-to-attend-christian-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS to Hear Arguments on Students Using State Aid to Attend Christian Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fscotus-to-hear-arguments-on-students-using-state-aid-to-attend-christian-schools%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095190&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CrucifixGettyImages-94464922-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a Maine case on whether students can use state aid to attend schools that provide religious or \u201csectarian\u201d instruction.<\/p>\n<p>The case, <em>Carson v. Makin<\/em>, is centered around parents who wished to send their children to Christian schools using state aid, only to be banned from the assistance program.&nbsp;<span>Pender Makin, commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, contends that the state should not have \u201csubsidize\u201d religious instruction.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a religious exclusion in Maine\u2019s tuition assistance program for high school students. Under that program, \u201celigible students may attend the public or private school of their parents\u2019 choice, whether inside or outside of Maine. But they may not receive tuition assistance if they attend schools that Maine deems \u201csectarian,\u201d&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/20\/20-1088\/168134\/20210204140045165_Petition%20for%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">according<\/a>&nbsp;to the petition for certiorari asking for the High Court\u2019s review.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is the latest installment in an&nbsp;ongoing&nbsp;battle over whether a school\u2019s being religious bars it from receiving state funds.<\/p>\n<p>In a 2017 case,&nbsp;<em>Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer<\/em>, the Supreme Court held that children\u2019s play areas run by religious organizations could not be disqualified from government grant programs on account of religious status&nbsp;when the money was used to make school playgrounds safer. In the 2020 case&nbsp;<em>Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue,&nbsp;<\/em>the Supreme Court extended the 2017 ruling to say that religious schools could not be disqualified because of religious status&nbsp;even if the money is not explicitly confined to features like playgrounds that are inherently secular.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe First Circuit seized on what it called&nbsp;<em>Espinoza\u2019<\/em>s \u2018use\/status distinction\u2019 to uphold a religious exclusion in Maine\u2019s tuition assistance program for high school students,\u201d according to filings by the religious-freedom law firm First Liberty Institute, and the economic-freedom law firm Institute for Justice.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court must decide whether the Maine law at issue violates the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Makin is arguing that the state\u2019s actions do not violate the Free Exercise Clause because public benefits go to public education, not education in general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA religious education is nothing like a public education, as this Court has recognized and as the factual record demonstrates. An education that includes proselytization and inculcation in specific religious beliefs and supports the exclusion of some children and families is antithetical to a public education,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/20\/20-1088\/197324\/20211022151803212_Brief%20of%20Respondent%2010%2022%2021.pdf\">according<\/a>&nbsp;to Maine\u2019s brief.&nbsp;\u201c\u2026While families are certainly entitled to send their children to religious schools (and Maine law respects that choice by declaring that enrollment in religious schools satisfies attendance requirements), the Free Exercise Clause does not demand that public dollars be used to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United States in its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/20\/20-1088\/198304\/20211029200249587_20-1088%20Carson%20102921.6.pdf\">brief<\/a>&nbsp;argues that the parents may not even have standing because \u201cit is unclear whether Temple Academy&nbsp;or BCS would participate in the tuition-assistance program if Section 2951(2) were held invalid,\u201d and that one of the parents\u2019 daughters recently graduated high school, making their claims \u201cmoot.\u201d They also contend that the Court has previously distinguished between religious discrimination and the refusal of the government to fund religious activity.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe government cannot \u2018discriminate[] against\u2019 or \u2018impose[] a penalty on\u2019 religious exercise by denying generally available benefits based on the recipient\u2019s \u2018religious character,\u2019\u201d the court document reads,&nbsp;quoting&nbsp;<i>Trinity Lutheran<\/i>. \u201cBut the Court has distinguished such penalties and discrimination\u2014which effectively penalize constitutionally protected activity that is not government-funded\u2014from mere refusals to subsidize particular religious activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span>The parents are accusing the state of violating the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause, saying that \u201cthe exclusion is neither neutral toward religion nor generally applicable\u2026,\u201d according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/20\/20-1088\/191423\/20210903155751180_Brief%20for%20Petitioners.pdf\">petitioners\u2019 brief<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>\u201cMaine\u2019s exclusion of \u2018sectarian\u2019 options from its tuition assistance program violates the Free Exercise, Establishment, and Equal Protection Clauses. This is so regardless of whether the exclusion is viewed as turning on the religious \u2018status\u2019 of the excluded schools or the religious \u2018use\u2019 to which a student\u2019s aid would be put at an excluded school,\u201d the parents allege, adding that there is no basis for such a distinction in either the text of the Free Exercise Clause or Supreme Court precedent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn fact, the Framers chose to protect religious \u2018exercise,\u2019 as opposed to mere belief or conscience, to ensure that Americans would be free to live out their faith. This Court, moreover, has never endorsed a distinction between religious status and use as grounds for eluding strict scrutiny of laws that discriminate based on religion,\u201d the court document reads.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The parents argue that Maine has violated the Establishment Clause because its policy \u201clacks secular purpose\u201d and discriminates between schools that are \u201cnominally religious\u201d and \u201cthose that put their faith into practice.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>\u201cMaine\u2019s exclusion also violates the Establishment Clause. It lacks a secular purpose, has a principal effect of inhibiting religion, and, perhaps most problematically, requires excessive government entanglement with religion. To determine whether a student may attend her chosen school, the state must make intrusive inquiries and judgments regarding the school\u2019s religious curriculum and activities. The fact of such inquiry is problematic enough,\u201d according to the brief.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the parents claim Maine violates the&nbsp;Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s&nbsp;Equal Protection&nbsp;Clause&nbsp;and flies in the face of the law\u2019s original intent.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe framers of that clause were particularly concerned with ensuring that religious educators supported by the Freedmen\u2019s Bureau could continue their efforts to educate the freedmen in the wake of the Civil War,\u201d they contend. \u201cIt would be perverse to conclude, as the First Circuit did, that the clause offers no meaningful protection to students who seek a religious education today.\u201d<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court justices will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_calendars\/MonthlyArgumentCalDecember2021.pdf\">allow<\/a>&nbsp;70 minutes for arguments Wednesday, beginning at 10 a.m. The justices are expected to render a decision by June of 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The case is <em>Carson v. Makin<\/em>, No. 20-1088 in the Supreme Court of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a Maine case on whether students can use state aid to attend schools that provide religious or \u201csectarian\u201d instruction. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}