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While there have been a variety of headlines and social media posts about the following cases, there has been some misstatements and misinterpretations about what these cases could mean for the upcoming legislative session.
Carson v Makin -
In a 6-3 decision the court sided with two Maine families who challenged Maine's program to subsidize secondary education in certain rural areas of the state.
Contrary to some headlines, this case did not approve voucher programs to be granted to religious schools (that already occurred as a result of a previous court case - Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue), but instead states that if Maine wants to continue to subsidize secondary education in rural areas (instead of running state-funded public schools) it must send public dollars to religious schools should families request, whereas before Maine would only approve funding for secular schools.
Read a full summary here.
Kennedy v Bremerton School District -
Again in a 6-3 decision, the court sided with a part-time football coach from the state of Washington. In a pretty sharp deviation in court precedent, Justice Gorsuch stated in his opinion that the traditional "lemon test" (from Lemon v Kurtzman) used to evaluate whether the free establishment clause was violated did not apply to Coach Kennedy's case.
Instead, Gorsuch stated that since the prayer was happening after a sports game, in a way where no one "expressed any coercion concerns to the District about the quiet, postgame prayers," whereas in previous cases Gorsuch stated there was clear "prayer involving public schools to be problematically coercive" the district had violated Coach Kennedy's rights in prohibiting the prayer to occur.
This case did not approve school-led prayer, but it certainly will complicate upcoming discussions on curriculum and offer a different level of protections for teachers that may opt to pray in school.
Read a full summary here.
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