Massachusetts rivals Maine for the lowest percentage of publicly owned and accessible coastal land. What seems a geographic coincidence is actually the product of contentious property rights disputes going back nearly 400 years, to the days of Puritan law.

Pioneer Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief in Carson v. Makin urging the Supreme Court of the United States to strike down a provision of Maine law. The Court will hear oral arguments in Carson this morning (December 8) at 10 am. The Maine law being challenged allows districts that don’t have their own schools to contract with a school or pay for students that choose to attend public or private schools, but explicitly excludes religious schools.