Anderson v. Town of Durham, No. 04-591 (Me. Apr. 26, 2006)

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the state’s tuition payment statute, which allows school districts that do not operate a public high school to provide public funds for students to attend private, nonsectarian high schools, does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments. In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), upholding the constitutionality of Ohio’s private school voucher program, a bill was introduced in Maine’s state legislature to repeal the section of the state’s tuition payment statute that prohibited school districts from paying for sectarian schools. When the legislative effort failed, a group of parents brought suit in federal court challenging the section on Fourteenth Amendment equal protection grounds. The case culminated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s ruling in Eulitt v. State of Maine, 386 F.3d 344 (1st Cir. 2004), that even in light of Zelman, the U.S. Constitution does not require Maine to fund tuition at sectarian schools. The First Circuit also relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), concluding "the Free Exercise Clause's protection of religious beliefs and practices from direct government encroachment does not translate into an affirmative requirement that public entities fund religious activity simply because they choose to fund the secular equivalents of such activity." Parents seeking to enroll their children in private, sectarian high schools filed the present suit in state court against three municipalities. They alleged that the section of the statute barring the use of public funds for private, sectarian high schools violates the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the municipalities. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the lower court’s decision. After reviewing both the state and federal court decisions regarding the Maine statute, the supreme court concluded that regardless of whether the rulings were made prior to or after the Zelman decision, the section of Maine’s tuition payment statute prohibiting payments to private sectarian schools did not infringe on parents’ free exercise of religion rights or violate the Establishment Clause. The court also failed to find any equal protection violation because the "statute does not infringe upon the fundamental right to free exercise of religion in a constitutionally significant manner."

[Editor’s Note: The Maine statute has been the subject of several rounds of litigation in both the state and federal courts. The courts have consistently ruled that the statute’s prohibition on participation of religious schools does not result in federal constitutional violations. To view a summary of the First Circuit’s decision, access the link below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Eulitt v. State of Maine]