Carson v. Makin

142 S.Ct. 1987 (2022)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The legislature has required that every school-age child in Maine “shall be provided an opportunity to receive the benefits of a free public education,” and that the required schools be operated by “the legislative and governing bodies of local school administrative units.” Of Maine’s 260 school administrative units (SAUs), fewer than half operate a public secondary school of their own. If an SAU neither operates its own public secondary school nor contracts with a particular public or private school for the education of its school-age children, the SAU must “pay the tuition . . . at the public school or the approved private school of the parent’s choice at which the student is accepted.” To be “approved” to receive these payments the school must either be “currently accredited by a New England association of schools and colleges” or separately “approved for attendance purposes” by the Department. Parents may direct tuition payments to schools inside or outside the State, or even in foreign countries. Prior to 1981, parents could direct tuition assistance payments to religious schools. In 1981, Maine imposed a new requirement that any school receiving tuition assistance payments must be “a nonsectarian school in accordance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The Maine attorney general stated that public funding of private religious schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Following the decision in Zelman, the Maine Legislature considered a proposed bill to repeal the “nonsectarian” requirement but rejected it. P's daughter attended high school at Bangor Christian Schools (BCS). Given that BCS is a “sectarian” school that cannot qualify for tuition assistance payments under Maine’s program, Ps paid the tuition for their daughter to attend BCS themselves. The Nelsons’ (P) daughter attended high school at Erskine Academy, a secular private school, and their son attended middle school at Temple Academy, a “sectarian” school. While they wished to send their daughter to Temple Academy too, they could not afford to pay the cost of the Academy’s tuition for both of their children. BCS and Temple Academy are both accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and the Department considers each school a “private school approved for attendance purposes” under the State’s compulsory attendance requirement. In 2018, Ps sued D. They alleged that the “nonsectarian” requirement violated the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court rejected Ps’ constitutional claims and granted judgment to D. The First Circuit recognized that, in light of Espinoza, its prior precedent upholding Maine’s “nonsectarian” requirement was no longer controlling. But it nevertheless affirmed the District Court’s grant of judgment to D. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.