The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is praising a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld Montana’s tax credits for donations to groups that provide scholarships to private and religious schools.

“This is good news, not only for people of faith, but for our country,” Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J. of Oakland, California, chairman of the group's Committee on Catholic Education, said in a joint statement. “A strong civil society needs the full participation of religious institutions. By ensuring the rights of faith-based organizations’ freedom to serve, the Court is also promoting the common good.”

Montana’s Supreme Court struck down a 2015 law that provided up to $150 in tax credits as a match to donations to nonprofit scholarships programs.

The Montana court cited a provision of the state constitution that prohibits any “direct or indirect appropriation or payment” of public funds “to aid any church, school” or other institution controlled by a church, sect or denomination,” according to court documents.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling June 30 overturned the Montana Supreme Court ruling.

“The Court has rightly ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not permit states to discriminate against religion,” Wenski and Barber said in their statement.