AU Urges Appeals Court To Uphold Colorado Bar On Aid To Re..

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December 10, 2007

Americans United Urges Appeals Court To Uphold Colorado Bar On Aid To
Religious Colleges

Civil Liberties Groups Argue That Colorado Is On Solid Ground In Denying
Funding To Pervasively Sectarian Institutions


Colorado is not required by either the state or federal constitutions to
provide public funding for tuition at pervasively sectarian colleges, says
Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, Americans United joined with other civil liberties groups to argue
that restrictions on state aid to religious institutions are
constitutional.

Colorado Christian University has filed a lawsuit, demanding the right to
participate in Colorado's state-funded student financial aid program. The
litigation came after state officials decided the university was so
overwhelmingly religious that aid to students there would fund religion and
thus violate the separation of church and state.

Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Americans United and the other public
interest groups argue that the high court "has never held that a failure to
fund religious activity necessarily violates" the free exercise of
religion.

The 32-page brief notes that the Supreme Court in its 2004 Locke v. Davey
ruling upheld Washington State's refusal to extend scholarship aid to
college students training to become members of the clergy. The groups argue
that a district judge properly applied Locke in turning away Colorado
Christian University's legal challenge.

"It's a big stretch to argue that since taxpayers help subsidize secular
education that they should also be required to help fund religious
schools," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans
United. "The U.S. Constitution places no mandate on states to dip into the
public coffers to support private religious schooling. In fact, just the
opposite is true."

Ayesha N. Khan, legal director of Americans United, said that Colorado "is
on solid constitutional ground in declining to subsidize a religious
education."

"The First Amendment," she said, "clearly protects citizens from supporting
religion with tax dollars."

The groups joining Americans United in the Colorado Christian University v.
Baker brief include the American Jewish Committee, the American Civil
Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the Anti-Defamation
League, People For the American Way Foundation and the American Jewish
Congress.

The brief, filed Dec. 7, was principally written by Walter Dellinger and
Pamela Harris at O'Melveney & Myers. (Dellinger is also with the Harvard
Law School Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Clinic.)

Read the press release:
http://www.au.org/site/R?i=sPMwd-btUsxhwyo3_IMgEQ..

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Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.


************************************************************
Americans United Press Contacts:
Joe Conn, Rob Boston, Jeremy Leaming

www.au.org/press

***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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