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Page Number: 36.0

14 

CARSON v. MAKIN 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

neutrality, States must have “some space for legislative ac-
tion neither compelled by the Free Exercise Clause nor pro-
hibited by the Establishment Clause,” Cutter, 544 U. S., at 
719, in which they can navigate the tension created by the
Clauses  and  consider  their  own  interests  in  light  of  the
Clauses’ competing prohibitions.  See, e.g., Walz, 397 U. S., 
at 669. 

Nothing in our Free Exercise Clause cases compels Maine 
to give tuition aid to private schools that will use the funds
to provide a religious education.  As explained above, this
Court’s decisions in Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza prohibit 
States from denying aid to religious schools solely because 
of a school’s religious status—that is, its affiliation with or 
control by a religious organization.  Supra, at 7–9.  But we 
have  never  said  that  the  Free  Exercise  Clause  prohibits 
States from withholding funds because of the religious use 
to which the money will be put.  Cf. Trinity Lutheran, 582 
U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 12).  To the contrary, we upheld in 
Locke a State’s decision to deny public funding to a recipient
“because of what he proposed to do” with the money, when
what he proposed to do was to “use the funds to prepare for 
the ministry.”  Trinity Lutheran, 582 U. S., at ___ (slip op., 
at 12); see also Espinoza, 591 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 13) 
(characterizing Locke similarly).  Maine does not refuse to 
pay tuition at private schools because of religious status or 
affiliation.    The  State  only  denies  funding  to  schools  that 
will  use  the  money  to  promote  religious  beliefs  through  a 
religiously  integrated  education—an  education  that,  in 
Maine’s view, is not a replacement for a civic-focused public
education.  See 979 F. 3d, at 38.  This makes Maine’s deci-
sion to withhold public funds more akin to the state decision
that we upheld in Locke, and unlike the withholdings that 
we invalidated in Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza. 

The Free Exercise Clause thus does not require Maine to
fund, through its tuition program, schools that will use pub-