https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-decision-religious-schools-aid-85645580702ed5ff125cf9760024ae89It's an interesting case. Maine has many communities that are too small to support their own schools, so the state provides money for families in such communities to send their children to private schools of their choice -- but the program excludes religious schools. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that this is unconstitutional.
I'm sure nobody will be surprised that it was the usual liberal triumverate who voted against the decision. Sotomayor whined about "dismantle[ing] the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build," -- as if that's what the Framers did. In reality, the Constitution only says the government shall not establish a state religion. When I was young, our money all still said "In God we trust" on it; Sotomayor obviously doesn't understand the Constitution she is sworn to interpret. Breyer wrote a dissent saying that Maine wanted to fund secular public education, not religious education.
Simple, Mr. Justice Breyer -- if Maine wants to fund secular public education, they don't have to fund any private education at all -- just build and operate public schools serving small, remote communities. As the majority decision notes, once the state decides to use public funds to pay for private education, the state can't discriminate on the basis of religion.
