December 4, 2007 | Read Time: 3 minutes
A federal appeals court last week affirmed a lower court’s ruling that government funds for an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
But the three-judge panel overturned the lower court’s order directing the Christian group that runs the prison program to repay the roughly $1.5-million in state money it received starting at the end of 1999.
The case is the latest in an ongoing battle over government support for sectarian organizations. The Bush Administration has been pushing to allow religious groups greater access to social-services grants, but courts across the country have repeatedly cautioned that mixing too much religion into programs violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against the government promoting religion.
The decision in the Iowa case was no surprise to Robert W. Tuttle, a law professor at George Washington University who monitors lawsuits involving government and religion.
“That’s where constitutional law is right now,” he said. “The government can fund religious organizations, but it can’t directly fund religious activities.”
In 2003 Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in Washington, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Iowa taxpayers and inmates against the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an organization affiliated with Prison Fellowship Ministries, in Lansdowne, Va., which runs a prison program in Iowa and five other states.
A U.S. District court ruled last year that InnerChange’s program in a prison near Des Moines was unconstitutional because of its explicit reliance on Christian teachings and because it was paid for at least in part by the state Department of Corrections.
The court ordered the Iowa corrections department to end the program, and for InnerChange to give back the $1.5-million the group had received for it.
Prison Fellowship and InnerChange appealed the decision.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its decision last week that the lower court was correct in ruling that the InnerChange program violated provisions of both the First Amendment and the Iowa constitution. But the appeals court clarified that the lower court’s ban against the program would apply only if it continued to operate using government aid.
The appeals court also said the lower court had erred in ordering InnerChange and Prison Fellowship to reimburse the state, saying the lower court did not take into consideration that state officials considered the program beneficial and had acted in good faith in giving money to it.
The Christian groups, however, will have to repay the state money it received after the June 2006 lower-court ruling. Mark Earley, Prison Fellowship’s president, said that money — about $160,000 — was put in escrow and will be returned immediately.
He said the Iowa program has been operating without government money since June of this year and will continue to do so. He said InnerChange’s eight other programs also operate entirely with private money.
Prison Fellowship is still deciding whether to appeal, Mr. Earley said.
Meanwhile, Americans United is hailing the decision.
“This ruling is a major setback for the White House’s ‘faith-based initiative,’” Alex J. Luchenitser, a lawyer with Americans United, said in a written statement. “It reaffirms that the government must ensure that public funds are not used for religious instruction, and that the government must not aid programs that discriminate based on religion.”
