In the Supreme Court case of Carson v. Makin, a Maine family challenged a state tuition assistance program that wouldn’t aid with tuition for religious schools, instead limiting aid to parents who wished to send their children to private secular or “nonsectarian” schools. The program is available to parents who live in school districts that don’t have high schools.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the program violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. This is a victory for defenders of religious and educational freedom. In fact, in light of a similar ruling in a case two years ago, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, I’m more curious as to why Maine kept such a discriminatory tuition assistance program in place.