AmeriCorps Agency Loses Suit on Religion
AmeriCorps Agency Loses Suit on Religion
Jul 6, 6:39 PM (ET)
By HOPE YEN
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps must stop financing programs that place volunteers in Catholic schools, a judge has ruled, saying it unconstitutionally crosses the line between church and state.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler sided with the American Jewish Congress, which argued that federal money was being used improperly to pay for teaching of Christian values through programs such as the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education. Kessler's decision late Friday was posted on the court's Web site Tuesday.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs AmeriCorps, argued that its funding was awarded based on a program's secular activities, not the religious teaching and daily Mass and prayer services that it said were a separate part of the program.
But Kessler disagreed, ruling that the line between the secular and nonsecular activities had become "completely blurred." She noted that the government did not monitor the programs enough to ensure the activities were mostly nonsecular.
"Such direct government involvement with religion crosses the vague but palpable line between permissible and impermissible government action under the First Amendment," Kessler wrote.
The ruling affects three of AmeriCorps' programs, which had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, the lawsuit said.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which has 60 days to appeal the ruling, referred calls to the Justice Department. A spokesman there, Charles Miller, said the department was reviewing the ruling and had not decided whether to appeal.
The ruling could have broader implications for President Bush's "faith-based initiative," which seeks to award federal grants to religious organizations to provide social services. Supporters say the groups provide much-needed help to government agencies, but the effort has stalled in Congress because of debate over its constitutionality.
Marc Stern, general counsel for the American Jewish Congress, said the ruling could open the door to additional litigation against some of Bush's grants to religious groups, since the decision places a heavier burden on government to ensure federally funded programs don't promote religion.
"This is one case that shouldn't have had to be brought, since the constitutional violation in paying parochial school teachers to teach religion is so obvious," Stern said. "One wonders what the government has been thinking all these years."
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which Congress created in 1993, oversees Senior Corps, Learn and Serve America and AmeriCorps, whose workers help nonprofit groups build affordable housing, teach skills, run after-school programs and organize disaster assistance. Grants are distributed by AmeriCorps to nonprofit agencies.
