Carson v. Makin
Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. ___ (2022), was a United States Supreme Court case related to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Free Exercise Clause. It was a follow-up to Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The case centered on the limits of school vouchers offered by the state of Maine, which had disallowed the use of vouchers to pay for religious-based private schools. In a 6–3 decision the Court ruled that Maine's restrictions on vouchers violated the Free Exercise Clause, as they discriminated against religious-backed private schools. The minority opinions argued that the decision worked against the long-standing principle of the separation of church and state, since state governments would now be required to fund religious institutions. Background Many U.S. states offer tuition assistance for private schools in lieu of public schools for primary education, using school vouchers. But several states have established in their constitutions, by way of a Blaine Amendment or similar wording, that the state cannot fund religious schools. About half Maine's students live in rural areas, many of which lack public high schools. Since 1873, Maine has provided tuition assistance program for residents of those areas to send their children to