Legal scholar says Supreme Court precedent supports seminary’s lawsuit
Georgia’s exclusion of a Christian seminary from a financial aid program violates the law, according to a pending lawsuit.
Luther Rice College and Seminary is suing the Georgia Student Finance Commission for excluding the school from receiving state aid.
The state operates a voucher program for higher education in lieu of creating more public universities across the state, as described in the lawsuit.
“Georgia officials excluded Luther Rice from the state’s student aid programs because ‘most of [Luther Rice’s] offerings [are] religious based and non-religious degrees [are] substantially intertwined with the school’s religious mission,’” the complaint states.
“This civil-rights action seeks to prevent the government from forcing a Christian college to surrender its religious character, beliefs, and exercise to participate in Georgia’s student aid programs just like other schools,” the lawsuit states.
The exclusion harms not just the college, but students, according to the lawsuit. Under program rules, “no Luther Rice student can receive Georgia student aid for any undergraduate degree or course, not even for a course or degree in the school’s general studies or psychology programs.”
“And no Georgia high school student can receive dual credit at Luther Rice,” the lawsuit states.
Alliance Defending Freedom provided further comment on the lawsuit to The College Fix.
“The state cannot discriminate against religious organizations when hiring, receiving funding, or even participating in sports for adhering to their beliefs,” Andrea Dill, legal counsel for the ADF, told The Fix via a media statement. “No religious school should be forced to change its Christian views to receive a state benefit.”
“As seen in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, the government cannot exclude churches and other faith-based organizations from a government benefit program simply because of their religious identity” Dill said. “This is targeting students of faith by taking away opportunities from students.”
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Trinity Lutheran refers to a 2017 Supreme Court case where a church successfully sued Missouri after the state denied its request to participate in a scrap tire recycling program. The church, which operates a preschool and daycare, wanted to access a grant for the recycled rubber. ADF represented the Lutheran church.
“We hope the judge will see that Luther Rice College needs immediate relief,” Dill said. “Students are currently not receiving student aid funding for the school year.”
The Fix reached out to the finance commission for questions on the legality of the program and the lawsuit. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” a spokesperson said.
A constitutional law scholar told The Fix the seminary’s case is strong, since the Supreme Court has previously ruled against voucher programs that exclude religious schools.
“The Supreme Court has been fairly clear that states cannot exclude K-12 schools from voucher programs solely because of their religious character,” South Texas College of Law Professor Josh Blackman said via email. “The same principle should apply to higher education.”
“I don’t know how common these sorts of programs are, but religious colleges should be entitled to the same sort of funding as [a] secular college.”
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