What Will the Supreme Court’s “Carson v. Makin” Decision Mean for Public Schools, School Vouchers, Charter Schools, and Religious Liberty?

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Last Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision in Carson v. Makin, a Maine, First Amendment case about the entanglement of religion and government funding for schools.  For the 6-3 conservative Court majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that if Maine pays for private schooling in remote towns so small they lack a public high school, private religious schools that teach about and promote religion—and even those schools that discriminate against gay students based on the schools’ religious tenets—cannot be denied the publicly funded vouchers.

In a recent article, Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, explains why the Carson v. Makin, church-state case seems so complicated and confusing: “The First Amendment prohibits laws ‘respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ These two religion clauses have long existed in tension and in a balance. The Free…

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