Policies that exclude faith-based schools from private-school-choice programs are not just unconstitutional; they are unwise. Carson v. Makin is a victory not just for religious liberty but for educational pluralism. And the decision comes at a time when we need educational pluralism more than ever.

A quarter-century ago, as a young attorney, I participated in the first litigation challenging the exclusion of faith-based schools from Maine’s tuition-assistance program for students in rural school districts. On Tuesday, in Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court agreed with me, holding in a 6–3 vote that the program unconstitutionally discriminates against faith-based schools. (I cried. Twenty-five years is a long time.)

In some ways, Carson is unremarkable. The case reiterates, for the third time in recent years, that the Constitution prohibits the government from refusing to permit religious organizations, including religious schools, to participate in programs providing public benefits—including school-choice programs. Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion hammered the point home with perfect clarity: “The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools—so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion” which “violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”

Critics of the decision, including the dissenting justices, responded with dark warnings about Carson ushering in a theocracy. Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained bitterly that the “Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build.” Justice Stephen Breyer predicted that the decision would increase “the potential for religious strife.” Such statements are hyperbolic at best. As a matter of constitutional law, the opinion breaks little new ground, merely reiterating what the Court has said repeatedly: the Constitution demands government neutrality toward religious believers and institutions. Full stop.

That Carson was not groundbreaking does not mean that it is not a landmark decision. On the contrary, the ruling represents the culmination of a battle for the equal treatment of faith-based schools that stretches back to the first half of the nineteenth century, when Catholic bishops began to demand public funds for Catholic schools on equality grounds, since public schools at the time were functionally Protestant and hostile to Catholic children. Those demands largely fell on deaf ears, and later, courts—including the Supreme Court—took a hard line against aid to children attending faith-based schools, invalidating on Establishment Clause grounds even programs providing modest financial benefits.

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