On June 27 of last year, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) vacated a 2015 decision by the New Mexico Supreme Court that disallowed the provision of textbooks by the state to students in private schools, including religious schools. It did so the day after it ruled in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer that another state, Missouri, could not exclude a religious school from a grant program to enhance playground safety merely because the school was religious. SCOTUS returned the textbook case to the New Mexico court “for further consideration in light of Trinity Lutheran.”

Fast forward to May 7, 2018, when New Mexico’s highest court revisited its 2015 decision and considered once again the question of whether the state’s Instructional Materials Law (IML) is constitutional. The case involves the New Mexico Association of Nonpublic Schools, a state affiliate of CAPE.

Read more about the case and its national implications in the June issue of CAPE Outlook.