The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn a ban in Montana on taxpayer funding for religious schools, a monumental win for yeshivos and all religious schools across the country. 

In Montana, the state gave a tax credit to people who donated to private scholarship organizations. But the state made a rule barring donations to religious schools from being included the in the tax incentive.

Parents of private school students in Montana sued, and a lower court ruled in their favor. The state’s Supreme Court subsequently ruled to scrap the program in its entirety. The case then went to the US Supreme Court.

Writing for the majority opinion on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

The ruling provides a major boost to proponents of religious schools and school choice proponents, and whose effects will likely be seen across the United States.

Montana’s program is similar to those in many states across the nation, and the Supreme Court’s ruling to include religious schools in these programs are a massive win for supporters of private religious education institutions and parents paying tuition for their children to attend those schools.

US Attorney General Bill Barr hailed the Court’s ruling. In a statement, Barr said, “The Court’s decision represents an important victory for religious liberty and religious equality in the United States.  As the Court explained, religious people are “members of the community too,” and their exclusion from public programs because of their religion is “odious to our Constitution” and “cannot stand.”