FFRF Sues Over Faith-Based Funding

Dissent from and disagreement over President Bush’s various faith-based initiatives have existed for quite some time, but now the Freedom From Religion Foundation has launched a lawsuit challenging a particular program and alleging that it favors religious organizations in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.

The New York Times explains:

"They're not leveling the playing field," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "They're cajoling religious organizations to come to them and telling them how to fill out the forms and giving untried groups money. We think it's about promoting religions." ... The lawsuit asks a judge to bar the use of taxpayer money for religion-based endeavors and require new rules to bar financing of social service organizations that include religion as an integral component of their services.

A case like this is difficult to win. Unless the regulations and directives are really open and egregious in their preference for religious groups, the argument that religious groups are favored can be difficult to make — even if you are in front of a judge sympathetic to your position. I haven’t seen the lawsuit so I don’t know the particulars, but I hope that the FFRF has taken the time to construct a careful and solid legal argument.

Read More:

• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101