March 4, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
The U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled that states could withhold government-financed scholarships from students studying religion, a decision that could have implications for efforts to funnel federal and state money to religious groups that provide job training, education, and other services.
By a vote 7 to 2, the court said Washington State was allowed to rescind a state-supported scholarship to Joshua Davey, who was studying to become a minister. Washington, along with 36 other states, has a law prohibiting the state from sponsoring religious education at colleges.
The court “cannot conclude that the denial of funding for vocational religious instruction alone is inherently constitutionally suspect,” said Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who wrote the majority opinion.
Though the case did not deal directly with President Bush’s effort to steer federal money to religious charities or other plans to provide government assistance to religious organizations for charitable purposes, critics of such efforts hailed the court’s decision.
“This maintains an important barrier to efforts to fund school vouchers and other faith-based programs,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in Washington.
Robert W. Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School, disagreed. “There’s no way you can read this case as something anywhere in the same ballpark as back to the wall of separation. It is a much more nuanced, much more limited decision,” he said.
However, Mr. Tuttle did say the decision would weaken attempts to establish social-service vouchers, which allow aid recipients to seek assistance from charities that infuse religion into their programs.
The ruling in Locke, Governor of Washington, et al. v. Davey, No. 02-1315, can be found at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/03pdf/02-1315.pdf.
