Judge D Brock Hornby of the US District Court for the District of Maine ruled Wednesday that public funds cannot be used for tuition payments to sectarian schools in regions where public schools are not provided by the local government.

Communities that do not have a local public or private secondary school to offer students are required to pay tuition for available public or approved private school options in neighboring regions. Parents are, depending on a student’s acceptance at the school, able to choose among these available options.

These options, though, specifically exclude sectarian schools due to precedent, including Eulitt ex. rel. Eulitt v. Maine, Dep’t of Educ., which found that “only nonsectarian schools are eligible for receipt of public funds for tuition purposes.”

Additionally, the plaintiff’s sectarian schools are “unwilling to alter their employment practices,” which use sexual orientation for employment purposes. Public funds to these schools would violate the Maine Human Rights Act and related codified language.

Despite this decision, Judge Hornby identifies friction between the Supreme Court case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer and Eulitt, and he anticipates a likely appeal to the First Circuit.