This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, October 3rd,

2022. I'm Caleb Brown.

The Religious Liberty School Choice case, Carson v. Macon

comes at the end of two decades of educational freedom cases.

Michael Bindus is of the Institute for Justice.

He was on the winning side of Carson V. Macon,

advancing parental choice in education.

He says there are still some big unresolved questions for advocates of religious and educational freedom.

And he spoke at the Cato Institute's Constitution Day festivities last month.

But I'm going to focus a little bit differently on Carson as a school choice case.

I'm not a religious liberty litigator per se.

I am a school choice litigator.

IJ defense school choice programs around the country.

And so I'm going to focus on Carson from that perspective,

while it's certainly addressing the religion clause issues

that came up in the litigation.

Now, since the modern school choice movement was in its infancy back in the early 90s, the big unresolved

question was whether choice is permissible under the federal establishment clause.

Opponents of choice argue that because some parents might choose religious schools,

that somehow constituted a state establishment of religion.

And thankfully, the Supreme Court

roundly rejected that argument back in 2002

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