CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The case challenging a $5 million West Virginia Water Development Authority grant to an out-of-state religious school is coming to an end, with a Court declaring the original grant unconstitutional and the Authority agreeing that public funds will be spent only on economic development and not on religious education or advocacy.
In addition, the College of St. Joseph the worker represented that it plans to alter its degree program – future students will receive a degree in philosophy, as opposed to the degree in Catholic studies that was previously required, according to court filings. The college also specified that no funds would be used for religious education or educator salaries – questions that were unanswered at the beginning of the suit.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay granted summary judgment this week, finding that after the Authority modified the scope of the grant, that no legal questions remained.
“Here, we have public financing – a five million dollar grant – approved by a state government entity to a college that sought to use said grant for purposes other than ‘acquiring instructional and educational training facilities ... to facilitate economic development.’ Specifically, and according to the College’s invoice, one million six hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the grant is designated for religious specific education and enrollment of students and one million dollars for religious specific advocacy. Said distributions are unconstitutional as they violate the establishment clause of the West Virginia and U.S. Constitutions,” Lindsay wrote in the order.
Since his bench ruling in July which found that the grant was unconstitutional, the Authority has amended its documentation to clarify that “the grant will be used only for the purposes of ‘real estate acquisition, site development, construction, infrastructure improvements, and supplies and equipment for workforce training and all necessary appurtenances thereto in compliance with the WVWDA grant agreement.”
In his order, Judge Lindsay stated that, “… as long as a state-approved grant is used for non-religious purposes and is a benefit available to the public, said grant is constitutional.”
The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia on behalf of the American Humanists Association and its members in West Virginia.
“We’re satisfied that the court found the original grant unconstitutional and maintained that state funds cannot be spent on religious instruction or sectarian advocacy in the future, even if the funding restrictions could have cut deeper. This was always an affront to West Virginian taxpayers, which is why we took action when our members saw this blatant violation of church-state separation happening in their community,” AHA Executive Director Fish Stark said. “We continue to question the wisdom of offering any subsidies to a religious school that could easily have its building costs footed by the Catholic Church – one of the world’s wealthiest religious entities – while West Virginia families still struggle to access clean water and other basic needs.”
ACLU-WV Advocacy Director Rusty Williams agreed.
“Tens of thousands of West Virginians lack access to clean drinking water, and it is unconscionable that their tax dollars were intended to go to an out-of-state entity for purposes that would have violated our Constitution,” Williams said. “We call on the State to prioritize the needs of West Virginians, not the wants of religious institutions, in future decision-making.”