Supreme Court Upholds School Choice and Religious Freedom

Supreme Court Upholds School Choice and Religious Freedom inCarson v. Makin by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer at National Catholic Register. On Tuesday morning the Supreme Court once again voted to defend religious freedom—this time by upholding the rights of parents to choose a Christian education for their children. In a 6-3 decision, the court held that the state of Maine violated the Constitution by preventing families in areas of the state that lack a public high school from using state aid to send children to schools that provide what it calls “sectarian” instruction. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, explained that Maine’s “nonsectarian” requirement violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Read Their 'Separation of Church and State' is Just Ugly ReligiousDiscrimination by Timothy P. Carney at Washington Examiner. The liberal minority on the Supreme Court showed its dedication Tuesday to religious discrimination. In an angry dissent in the case Carson v. Makin, the three liberal justices chastised the majority for striking down a law that explicitly discriminated against religious institutions. The liberal justices called their principle “separation of church and state" and claimed it was rooted in the First Amendment. But the legal or moral principle they champion, and on which the Maine law just struck down was based, is simply that government ought to discriminate against religious institutions. Read Bogus ‘Civics’ Bill Will Push CRT on States by Stanley Kurtz at National Review. The Civics Secures Democracy Act is the most pernicious federal education legislation I’ve ever seen. Now that it has been reintroduced with token yet still noticeably increased Republican support, there is a very real danger that it could become law. Via the Civics Alliance, many prominent conservatives have already announced their opposition to this bill (including Mark Bauerlein, John Hinderaker, Roger Kimball, Christopher Rufo, and Eagle Forum president emerita, Eunie Smith)…. So far, however, Republicans in Congress have been silent, as have Republican governors, who stand to have their state’s education systems effectively commandeered by a quiet alliance of leftist state and federal bureaucrats. It’s Common Core 2.0, but this time with CRT, not fuzzy math, at stake. Let’s hope more Republican officeholders speak out against CSDA in the coming days. Nothing could tear the party apart faster than federalizing CRT by culpable neglect. Read Bishop Revokes Catholic Status of Jesuit School Flying LGBT,Black Lives Matter Flags by Kevin J. Jones at Catholic News Agency. After a months-long impasse, a Jesuit middle school in Worcester, Massachusetts, has had its Catholic status revoked by the local bishop for defying his order to stop flying flags supporting LGBT pride and the Black Lives Matter movement. “The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public about the Church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester said in a June 16 decree. “The Nativity School of Worcester is prohibited from this time forward from identifying itself as a ‘Catholic’ school and may no longer use the title ‘Catholic’ to describe itself,” he said. “Mass, sacraments, and sacramentals are no longer permitted to be celebrated on Nativity School premises or be sponsored by Nativity School in any church building or chapel within the Diocese of Worcester.” Read Eighty-Two Percent of Voters Would Back Different Political PartyOver Education Platform: Poll by Jeremiah Poff at Washington Examiner. Commissioned by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and conducted by the Harris Poll, the survey found that 82% of parents would be willing to support a candidate from another political party if that candidate's education platform was aligned with their personal views on the issue…. The poll, which surveyed 5,002 U.S. parents in the last two weeks of May, also found that 83% of parents considered education to be a more important issue to them politically than it had in the past, including 45% of black parents who indicated they felt strongly about the issue. Read Fairfax Schools OK Plan to Punish Students Who MisgenderClassmates by Jeremiah Poff at Washington Examiner. In an 8-4 vote, the northern Virginia school board approved changes to its Student Rights and Responsibilities policy that categorized “discriminatory harassment” on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation as “behaviors of safety concern.” Violators of the policy could face weekslong suspensions and referrals to local law enforcement…. The board's decision comes as the Biden administration is expected to release a new regulatory proposal on Title IX that would expand the definition of prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The Fairfax school board policy appears to preempt the expected regulation. Read Throwback Thursday Who Am I? The Question of Persona by Alvaro de Vicente at The Heights Forum on November 17, 2018. Growing up is, at least in part, a process of learning to ask, and learning to answer, certain fundamental questions. These include timeless queries such as “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” Our sons, in particular, might ask themselves, “What does it mean to be a man?” and “What is the point of my life right now, given that I’m not a man yet?” Our boys’ attempts to answer these questions, along with the answers those efforts yield, will lead them to a certain self-awareness—an identity of sorts. Ultimately, we want our boys to know themselves as they are: beloved sons of a Creator God who loves them deeply as a Father. Their lives, then, become an adventure of deepening in that awareness and of living accordingly. The earlier our lads can start down this path, the better. Read. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts