ACLU-WV’s lawsuit challenging $5 million in water and economic development funds that were funneled to an out-of-state Catholic institution will move forward, following a judge’s ruling this week.
The court declined to grant the state of West Virginia’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit Monday. Parties are now awaiting scheduling of an evidentiary hearing.
In October 2024, the water authority approved the $5 million grant to the Steubenville, Ohio-based College of Saint Joseph the Worker for the creation of a construction and real estate company headquartered in Weirton, as well as a new branch campus in the Kanawha Valley. The only degree conferred by the school is in Catholic studies.
On its website, the school has described itself as “radically Catholic from top to bottom.” It describes its work, including its vocational work, as deeply and fundamentally Catholic, inseparable from the religious aspects of the college. In the “about” section on its website, it says, “Our goal is to produce faithful Christians who are virtuous citizens, intellectually formed, and capable of building up the Church in their communities.”
ACLU-WV filed a lawsuit in January on behalf of the American Humanists Association. The case is before Kanawha Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay.
“Tens of thousands of West Virginians lack clean drinking water,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said. “Religious schools have every right to exist and to educate their students according to the tenets of their faith, but it is wholly inappropriate to force taxpayers in this state to fund this mission with money intended for water and infrastructure.”