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US Supreme Court lifts ban on state aid to religious schools

The Supreme Court elated religious free exercise advocates and alarmed secular groups with its June 30 ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen.

In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the high court ruled 5–4 that states must give religious schools the same access to public funding that other private schools receive, preserving a Montana scholarship program that had largely benefited students at religious institutions.