July 25, 2002 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Last month’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of an Ohio school-voucher program may strengthen President Bush’s efforts to help religious groups get government money, but the idea of expanding vouchers beyond schools to other social-service programs still faces many legal hurdles, observers say.
In the Supreme Court decision, the justices ruled 5-to-4 that the Ohio Pilot Scholarship Program, which uses state money to pay for students’ tuition at religious and private schools, did not violate the Constitution’s requirement that church and state stay separate. The court said the program was constitutional because parents were given a choice between religious and secular schools and the government did not try to influence them to use the vouchers at one type of institution or the other.
Just days after the court’s decision, the president began touting the ruling alongside his faith-based plan in speeches in Cleveland and Milwaukee.
President Bush has said he wants more aid to go directly to religious groups that compete for government grants and contracts.
Other Republicans have said that vouchers might be a better way to achieve that goal, and the Supreme Court ruling makes it appear that such an effort passes constitutional muster — while direct aid might not.
Vouchers have long been available for federal child-care programs, but some advocates want to expand their use to drug treatment, job training, or other assistance. The vouchers could be redeemed at nonprofit programs run by secular or religious groups. Members of the House of Representatives included such a plan in a measure they passed after President Bush urged more aid for religious groups, but the legislation is not expected to be passed by the Senate.
But both proponents and critics say the use of vouchers for social services is far trickier than in the case of schools, in large part because it is harder to make sure adults in need of services have genuine flexibility to choose or shun a religious-oriented program.
For instance, some critics say, people could have trouble redeeming vouchers at the group of their choice because of problems with transportation or work schedules. They say that, in reality, social-service caseworkers would steer clients to religious or nonreligious groups; the recipient of the voucher wouldn’t be making a genuine choice.
Wisconsin Lawsuit
Such issues are now being raised in a Wisconsin lawsuit that nonprofit groups nationwide are watching closely. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, in Madison, Wis., is suing the state over its financial support of Faith Works, a religious group in Milwaukee.
In January a federal judge ruled that direct state support of Faith Works was unconstitutional because of the charity’s religious nature. The judge is now set to decide whether the state’s Department of Corrections should be allowed to offer vouchers to men who want to go to the Faith Works halfway house after their release from prison.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation argues that the program does not give prisoners enough leeway to decide whether they want to join the religiously run halfway house, while the state says that the program is constitutional because the men have the right to refuse to go.
The Supreme Court decision is available online at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/01slipopinion.html.
The Wisconsin court’s January decision is online at http://www.ffrf.org/legal/faithworks_decision.html.
