Foundation: ‘Don’t discriminate against religious schools

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2011
(Photo from morallaw.org)

Foundation for Moral Law 

MONTGOMERY, Ala.The Foundation for Moral Law, an Alabama-based nonprofit dedicated to the defense of religious liberty, filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court urging the Court to end discrimination against religious schools. 

The State of Maine provides tuition assistance for parents who send their children to private schools – provided they are secular.  If parents believe they should send their children to religious schools, they must pay tuition themselves. Religious parents in Maine believe this is discrimination, and they have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Foundation’s amicus brief urges the Court to hear this case and give religious parents and schools the equal protection of the law. 

Foundation President Kayla Moore said, “Maine’s discriminatory program gives secular private schools an unfair advantage over religious schools. Parents who choose religious education for their children should not be penalized for that choice. They pay taxes like everyone else.” 

Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe, who authored the brief, added, “Ever since the Vincent v. Widmar decision in 1981, and more recently in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer in  2017 and Espinoza v. Montana in 2020, the Supreme Court has championed equal access for religious persons and institutions.  This time, we hope the Court will make clear once and for all that the Constitution forbids this kind of discrimination.  Religious parents are not second-class citizens.”