FAITH-BASED FINANCING

A federal appeals court has ruled that organizations can sue the federal government over the constitutionality of President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative, which helps religious groups receive federal support to provide social services, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, in Madison, Wis., claims that the program violates the separation of church and state. The group first filed a lawsuit against the administration in 2004, but a federal judge dismissed the case, saying that taxpayers could not challenge appropriations made by the executive branch, only those made for specific purposes by Congress. Neither the White House nor the U.S. Attorney General’s office in Madison provided a comment for the story.