Maine High Court Re-Hears Religious School Funding Case
MCLU Urges Court to Protect Government-Free Religion  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         Contact:
Tuesday, February 14, 2006                                                               Shenna Bellows, Executive Director
                                                                                                            Zachary L. Heiden, Staff Attorney                                                                                                                (w) 774-5444
                                                                                                           

PORTLAND –  Today, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear additional arguments in Julia Anderson et al. v. Town of Durham et al., which involves an attempt to force Maine to fund religious education with taxpayer money.  The case was originally argued in March 2005, and the Court has invited counsel back for additional arguments.  The Maine Civil Liberties Union, along with Jeffrey Thaler of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson, represent intervenors defending Maine’s decision to stay out of the religion business.  Government-funded religion could quickly lead to government funded discrimination.

“The MCLU is opposed to government involvement in religion,” said Zachary Heiden, Staff Attorney for the Maine Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel for the intervenor-defendants.  “Religion is simply too important to be needlessly entangled with the government.”

The Superior Court has already found in favor of the State of Maine and the MCLU, and Anderson will be heard on appeal.  In 2004, the nearly identical case of Eulitt et al. v. Maine Department of Education was brought in the Federal Court.  The Maine Civil Liberties Union submitted a “friend of the court” brief in Eulitt.  The State of Maine and the MCLU successfully convinced the courts to uphold the constitutionality of Maine’s school funding program. 

“Government-free religion remains a major priority for the Maine Civil Liberties Union,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the MCLU.  “Religious institutions, such as schools, currently enjoy a great amount of independence from the government.  If Maine begins funding religious schools, those schools will become ‘hired hands’ of the state, thus trading self-sufficiency for government funds. No religious schools are even involved in this case, because they know that government money always has strings attached.”

Since the original argument, there have been no significant legal decisions that would affect this case.  The Court, however, has experienced a significant personnel change with the retirement of Associate Justice Paul Rudman and the arrival of Associate Justice Warren Silver.  The argument will take place at 1:00 pm at the Cumberland County Courthouse.

 
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