By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

A lawsuit over Maine’s tuition law is going to the state supreme court today.

For the second time.

Eight area families have sued the state to change a 25-year-old Maine law that prohibits towns from paying for religious school tuition, even if those towns have no schools of their own and routinely pay for students to attend other private schools.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard the case last March and was expected to rule sometime within the past year, but the court recently asked the two sides to deliver their arguments again.

“We’re not really sure why,” said Lisa Knepper, spokeswoman for the Institute for Justice, a Washington-based law firm representing the families.

Although the court didn’t explain the need for another hearing, a new justice did join the Supreme Court in 2005. It’s not unusual for the court to hear a case for a second time after a new justice arrives, Knepper said.

The court will hear the case in Portland this afternoon. It will likely take months to rule.

The Institute for Justice filed the original lawsuit 3 years ago on behalf of six families, saying the state’s refusal to pay for religious schools violated their right to free exercise of religion. Since then, two other families joined the suit. All are from Minot, Durham and Raymond, towns that have no high schools.

Since 1981, Maine has said the U.S. Constitution forces the state to exclude religious schools from its tuition programs. But 3 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court said the Constitution did allow Cleveland to pay for children to attend church-run schools. That ruling opened the door for all states to pay for religious education. Soon after, local families filed suit against Maine.

However, the Maine Attorney General’s Office argued that the Cleveland case may have allowed states to pay for religious schools but did not require them to pay.

Lower courts have agreed.

About 6,700 Maine students receive public funds to attend schools outside their towns, not including those who need special education. In Maine, 171 school systems have no high school, while 59 have no school at all, according to the Maine Department of Education.