On Tuesday, the Supreme Court took another major step toward obliterating the wall separating church and state by holding that the state of Maine is constitutionally required to subsidize religious education when it pays for private secular education. The implications of this decision in mandating government financial support for religion are enormous.
The First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In 1947, the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition against the establishment of religion applied to the actions of state and local governments. All nine justices in that case agreed that this provision is best understood through the words of Thomas Jefferson, that there should be a wall separating church and state.
For decades, the court applied this principle in limiting the ability of the government to provide financial support for religious activities, including for religious schools. This followed James Madison’s view that it was abhorrent to tax people to support the religions of others. The central idea is that the government and its use of funds should be secular.
