Catholic schools remain excluded from Maine’s tuition grant program, a federal judge has ruled, adding that he expected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to eventually provide “a more authoritative ruling.” He said the case “poses novel constitutional issues and … the Court has attempted to frame its opinion as a prelude” to an appeals court ruling. Last June, a Catholic family of five and a Catholic high school in the Diocese of Portland, Maine, filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s Department of Education and its Human Rights Commission challenging the state’s exclusion of faith-based schools from the tuition assistance program.