Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf
Page Number: 34

12 

CARSON v. MAKIN 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 591 U. S. ___, ___ 
(2020)  (slip  op.,  at  2).    “[E]ducating  young  people  in  their 
faith,  inculcating  its  teachings,  and  training  them  to  live 
their  faith,”  we  have  said,  “are  responsibilities  that  lie  at 
the very core of the mission of a private religious school.” 
Id., at ___ (slip op., at 18).  Indeed, we have recognized that 
the  “connection  that  religious  institutions  draw  between
their central purpose and educating the young in the faith” 
is so “close” that teachers employed at such schools act as
“ministers”  for  purposes  of  the  First  Amendment.  Id.,  at 
___, ___ (slip op., at 2, 21); see also Hosanna-Tabor Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U. S. 171 
(2012).

By  contrast,  public  schools,  including  those  in  Maine,
seek first and foremost to provide a primarily civic educa-
tion.  We have said that, in doing so, they comprise “a most 
vital  civic  institution  for  the  preservation  of  a  democratic
system  of  government,  and  . . .  the  primary  vehicle  for
transmitting the values on which our society rests.”  Plyler 
v. Doe, 457 U. S. 202, 221 (1982) (citation and internal quo-
tation marks omitted).  To play that role effectively, public
schools are religiously neutral, neither disparaging nor pro-
moting any one particular system of religious beliefs.  We 
accordingly have, as explained above, consistently required 
public school education to be free from religious affiliation 
or indoctrination.  Cf. Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U. S. 578, 
583–584 (1987) (“The Court has been particularly vigilant 
in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause in 
elementary and secondary [public] schools”).

Maine legislators who endorsed the State’s nonsectarian 
requirement  recognized  these  differences  between  public
and religious education.  They did not want Maine taxpay-
ers  to  finance,  through  a  tuition  program  designed  to  en-
sure  the  provision  of  free  public  education,  schools  that
would use state money for teaching religious practices.  See, 
e.g., App. 104 (Maine representative stating that “[f]rom a