Thread: Supreme Court: Government Can’t Exclude Christian Groups From Programs Just Because T

Supreme Court: Government Can’t Exclude Christian Groups From Programs Just Because They’re Christian

In a huge victory, the Supreme Court today ruled that government programs can’t exclude Christian groups from them just because they are Christian.

The specifics of the case at issue are not directly related to pro-life causes but the decision certainly could have impact on pro-life organizations. Previously, Christian-based abstinence organizations have been denied funding and pro-life organizations have been denied participation in governmental programs.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Monday that the government cannot exclude churches and other faith-based organizations from a secular government program simply because of their religious identity. This marked the first major religious liberty case since Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the Court earlier this year.

The much-anticipated decision came in the case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, involving a church-run preschool in Missouri. The state denied the church a partial reimbursement grant for rubberized playground surface material made from recycled tires solely because a church runs the preschool, even though the only purpose of the grant program is to improve children’s safety.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today affirms the commonsense principle that government isn’t being neutral when it treats religious organizations worse than everyone else,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman, who argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Trinity Lutheran Church in April. “Equal treatment of a religious organization in a program that provides only secular benefits, like a partial reimbursement grant for playground surfacing, isn’t a government endorsement of religion. As the Supreme Court rightly found,
unequal treatment that singles out a preschool for exclusion from such a program simply because a church runs the school is clearly unconstitutional.”



Supreme Court: Government Can’t Exclude Christian Groups From Programs Just Because They’re Christian

Religious organization are already getting benefits from the government by being nontaxable. No kind of corporation that can operate tax free should be getting any kind of support from the government.