Maine voters overwhelmingly support law barring religious exemption from student vaccination requirement
Maine is the latest state to wrestle with religious exemptions for vaccinations, joining Connecticut, Massachusetts and Texas.
Federal Lawsuit in Maine Challenges Law Barring State Aid to Religious Schools
The school funding lawsuit in Maine is just the latest in a string of cases testing the reach of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Trinity Lutheran Church.
New Lawsuit Demands Taxpayer Funds for Religious Education in Maine
Plaintiffs in Maine and Washington are seeking to build on the Supreme Court’s Trinity Lutheran Church ruling to demand state subsidies for religious education despite state funding barring such funding.
Maine Senate Rejects Religious Freedom Bill
Written by Don ByrdBy a 19-16 margin, the State Senate in Maine today rejected a bill that would have prohibited the state government from placing any burden on religious exercise unless required to achieve a compelling government interest. Similar to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) this bill departs significantly from that law by not requiring the burden on a person’s religious exercise to be “substantial” before triggering this threshold.
Maine Judiciary Committee Rejects RFRA Proposal
Written by Don ByrdLate last year, I posted about a proposal by a Maine legislator to adopt a state version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as many other states have done. Notably, the Maine RFRA would have significant differently from the federal version by requiring the government to justify any burden on religious exercise (the federal version and most state versions require this only when a person’s religious exercise is “substantially” burdened. You can read the post for more about why this difference matters).
