Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf
Page Number: 10.0

6 

CARSON v. MAKIN 

Opinion of the Court 

Revenue, 591 U. S. ___ (2020).  Espinoza held that a provi-
sion of the Montana Constitution barring government aid 
to any school “controlled in whole or in part by any church,
sect, or denomination,” Art. X, §6(1), violated the Free Ex-
ercise Clause by prohibiting families from using otherwise 
available scholarship funds at the religious schools of their 
choosing.  The First Circuit recognized that, in light of Es-
pinoza,  its  prior  precedent  upholding  Maine’s  “nonsec-
tarian” requirement was no longer controlling.  979 F. 3d, 
at 32–36.  But it nevertheless affirmed the District Court’s 
grant of judgment to the commissioner.  Id., at 49. 

As relevant here, the First Circuit offered two grounds to
distinguish  Maine’s  “nonsectarian”  requirement  from  the
no-aid provision at issue in Espinoza.  First, the panel rea-
soned that, whereas Montana had barred schools from re-
ceiving funding “simply based on their religious identity—
a status that in and of itself does not determine how a school 
would use the funds”—Maine bars BCS and Temple Acad-
emy from receiving funding “based on the religious use that 
they would make of it in instructing children.”  979 F. 3d, 
at 40.  Second, the panel determined that Maine’s tuition
assistance  program  was  distinct  from  the  scholarships  at 
issue in Espinoza because Maine had sought to provide “a 
rough equivalent of the public school education that Maine 
may permissibly require to be secular but that is not other-
wise accessible.”  979 F. 3d, at 44.  Thus, “the nature of the 
restriction at issue and the nature of the school aid program 
of  which  it  is  a  key  part”  led  the  panel  to  conclude  “once
again” that Maine’s “nonsectarian” requirement did not vi-
olate the Free Exercise Clause.  Id., at 46. 

We granted certiorari.  594 U. S. ___ (2021). 

II 
A 
The  Free  Exercise  Clause  of  the  First  Amendment  pro-