Federal Court to Hear Arguments on Public Funds in Private, Discriminatory Schools
January 7, 2025 7:30 am
Two Maine private schools will argue they should be allowed to receive public education funds and to discriminate against LGBTQ students.
BOSTON – A federal appeals court in Boston will hear arguments today in cases concerning two Maine private schools that are seeking to receive public education funds and discriminate against LGBTQ students at the same time, in violation of the Maine Human Rights Act. Arguments in Crosspoint v. Makin and St. Dominic Academy v. Makin will be live-streamed during a session beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The ACLU of Maine, ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church filed briefs in both cases last November arguing private religious schools that receive public dollars cannot discriminate against students based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other protected characteristics. Read the briefs here and here.
Maine pays tuition for students to attend approved private schools in districts where no public schools exist. 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 on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and more.
The schools currently discriminate against students based on their faith, sexual orientation, and gender identity and are not eligible to receive public funds. Crosspoint Church and St. Dominic Academy sued the state in March and June 2023, respectively, arguing they should receive public dollars and also be allowed to discriminate. In February and August 2024, the United States District Court for the District of Maine kept the state's anti-discrimination protections in place, ruling the law is neutral and does not interfere with the free exercise of religion. The school appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the fall of 2024.
“Any school that chooses to participate in a state-funded education program must comply with the same state regulations as all other participants, including the state’s anti-discrimination laws,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “No court has ruled that organizations can use public dollars to discriminate, and this court should not be the first.”
The cases mark the beginning of a new front in the national legal landscape that threatens to give religious schools a license to discriminate using taxpayer dollars. Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, Crosspoint Church and St. Dominic are among the first educational institutions in the country to argue to a federal appeals court that they should be permitted to receive public funds and allowed to discriminate.
Read the amicus briefs in the PDFs at the bottom of this page.
Related Content
Ensuring Public Dollars Are Never Used to Discriminate – Crosspoint Church v. Makin, et al.
ACLU Argues Public Dollars Cannot be Used to Discriminate in Private Schools
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