Appeals Court Rules Private Schools Receiving State Funds Cannot Discriminate

BOSTON – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit last Thursday ruled that private religious schools receiving public funds are not exempt from the Maine Human Rights Act’s protections against discrimination. The court ruled against Crosspoint Church and St. Dominic Academy, which sued the state seeking an exemption from Maine’s non-discrimination laws that apply to all schools participating in the state-funded tuition assistance program.

The ACLU of Maine, ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed briefs in Crosspoint and St. Dominic, arguing that religious schools receiving state funds must comply with the same state rules and regulations as all other schools.

Maine law bars schools from refusing to admit students based on their faith, gender identity, or sexual orientation. These laws apply to all schools that receive public funding, and do not single out religious schools for any particular burden. The court held that religious organizations are not entitled to exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws, which has been standard from the U.S. Supreme Court for decades.

“Crosspoint Church’s and St. Dominic Academy’s arguments threatened to dismantle hard-won anti-discrimination protections in our state. We applaud the court’s rejection of those arguments and its defense of the Maine Human Rights Act,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “Any school that chooses to participate in a state-funded education program must play by the same rules and comply with the same state regulations as all other participants. It is critical that Maine retains the ability to prohibit discrimination and advance equality in our state.”

Most Maine students attend public schools in their home district. For decades, Maine has paid tuition for students to attend approved private schools in districts where no public school exists. Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, religious schools became eligible to receive these public funds. However, these schools must still comply with the Maine Human Rights Act’s anti-discrimination provisions, which prohibit discrimination based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and more.

The court wrote that, “in short, the State is simply saying that a school in Maine, whether religious or not, cannot accept public funds while simultaneously putting up, for example, a "No Protestant Children Need Apply" sign.” The court also wrote that “Crosspoint seeks to refuse admission to (and expel) any student who is gay or transgender, irrespective of that student's speech. Although such refusal may express Crosspoint's views regarding sexual orientation and gender identity . . . that does not transform the rule into a speech regulation.”

These cases mark a new front in the national legal landscape that threatens to give religious schools a license to discriminate using taxpayer dollars. Crosspoint Church and St. Dominic Academy were among the first educational institutions in the country to make this argument following Carson v. Makin.