Court refuses to hear appeal of voucher decision

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court declined Nov. 27 to consider overturning a Maine state court’s decision against the use of tuition vouchers at religious schools.

The justices’ refusal to hear the appeal underscores their unwillingness to force states to fund religious schools in the name of religious freedom. The justices declined, without comment or recorded dissent, to hear an appeal of an April ruling by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. That court said that state legislators acted constitutionally in 1983 when they excluded religious schools from a long-standing statewide voucher program. The program allows districts too small to have their own high schools to provide parents with vouchers to cover tuition at private schools.