Carson v. Makin

Carson v. Makin
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 8, 2021 Decided June 21, 2022
Full case name	David Carson, as Parent and Next Friend of O. C., et al. v. A. Pender Makin, in her official capacity as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education
Docket no.	20-1088
Citations	596 U.S. 767 (more)
Argument	Oral argument
Decision	Opinion
Holding
Maine's "nonsectarian" requirement for the otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Clarence Thomas · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan · Neil Gorsuch Brett Kavanaugh · Amy Coney Barrett
Case opinions
Majority	Roberts, joined by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett
Dissent	Breyer, joined by Kagan; Sotomayor (all but Part I–B)
Dissent	Sotomayor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. 767 (2022), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case related to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Free Exercise Clause. It was a follow-up to Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.

The case centered on the limits of school vouchers offered by the state of Maine, which had disallowed the use of vouchers to pay for religious-based private schools. In a 6–3 decision the Court ruled that Maine's restrictions on vouchers violated the Free Exercise Clause, as they discriminated against religious-backed private schools. The minority opinions argued that the decision worked against the long-standing principle of the separation of church and state, since state governments would now be required to fund religious institutions.