On its face, Carson v. Maikin seems to be a resounding victory for religious liberty and school choice in Maine. The Supreme Court held that the state cannot exclude two Christian schools from a tuition payment program. Open up the coffers for Bangor Christian and Temple Academy? Not so fast.
Justice Breyer observed in his dissent that there may be another conflict between the state and the Christian schools.
Legislators also recognized that these private schools make religiously based enrollment and hiring decisions. Bangor Christian and Temple Academy, for example, have admissions policies that allow them to deny enrollment to students based on gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, and religion, and both schools require their teachers to be Born Again Christians. Legislators did not want Maine taxpayers to pay for these religiously based practices—practices not universally endorsed by all citizens of the State—for fear that doing so would cause a significant number of Maine citizens discomfort or displeasure. The nonsectarian requirement helped avoid this conflict—the precise kind of social conflict that the Religion Clauses themselves sought to avoid.
