Last year, we won the U.S. Supreme Court case, Carson v Makin on behalf of school choice in Maine. However, the state is continuing to discriminate against religious schools.

First Liberty Attorneys Lea Patterson and Courtney Jones join the podcast to discuss our victory in Carson, along with the history of Maine’s school-choice program. They’ll give a thoughtful legal perspective on the case and explain why we’re still fighting in court.

The Case for Liberty is a new podcast from First Liberty Institute. It offers a deep dive into the most important religious freedom cases of our day with some of the nation’s top religious freedom attorneys.

First Liberty’s Chris Freund is your host and guide through the conversations – delving into the details of our strategies and goals for each case. With a rotating cast of attorneys, The Case for Liberty is for those seeking an in-depth look at religious freedom in the law.

Learn more about this case: https://firstliberty.org/treat-children-fairly/

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

1:29 The history of Maine public schools

4:55 What schools Maine kids can go to

5:50 The Blaine amendments

8:20 The first public school law

9:35 Case law leading to Carson

11:30 Locke v Davey

14:03 Trinity Lutheran & Espinosa

18:28 Religious use and the Court

21:49 Carson v Makin

27:40 The benefit of the tuition program

30:22 The implications & aftermath of Carson

33:03 Maine’s response to Carson

38:33 What we’re doing now

Episode Sources:

Richard Gabel, Public Funds for Church and Private Schools (1937)

Ava Harriet Chadbourne, The Beginnings of Education in Maine (1928)

Ernst C. Helmreich, Religion and the Maine Schools: An Historical Approach (1960)

McConnell, et al., Religion and the Constitution (4th ed. 2016)

https://www.johnbapst.org/about/mission-and-history/

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002)

Locke v. Davey, 124 S. Ct. 1307 (2004)

Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, 137 S. Ct. 2012 (2017)

Espinoza v. Montana Dep’t of Revenue, 140 S. Ct. 2246 (2020)

Carson ex rel. O.C. v. Makin, 142 S. Ct. 1987 (2022)

Pl.’s Compl., Crosspoint Church v. Makin, et al., No. 1:23-cv-00146 (D. Me.).

Maine AG’s Carson Press Release: https://www.maine.gov/ag/news/article.shtml?id=8075979