WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a program that is part of President Bush's plan to fund social services through religious charities.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled March 8 that the Corporation for National and Community Service does not violate the First Amendment by allowing college students teaching in the AmeriCorps program to choose to teach at religious schools — even if they teach religion courses.
A three-judge panel of the court unanimously overturned a lower court's decision that said the practice creates the appearance of government endorsement of religion, even if program participants obey regulations that require them not to count the time they spend teaching religion.
The appeals court also ruled that a $400 fee the government program pays the participating schools is legal, even if the money goes directly to a religious school.
“Individual participants who elect to teach religion in addition to secular subjects do so only as a result of 'their own genuine and independent private choice,'” wrote Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph in the court's opinion.
“The AmeriCorps program creates no incentives for participants to teach religion. They may count only the time they spend engaged in non-religious activities toward their [1,700] service-hours requirement,” he continued. “And if they do teach religious subjects, they are prohibited from wearing the AmeriCorps logo when they are doing so.”
The decision was the result of a lawsuit that the American Jewish Congress filed against the Corporation for National and Community Service — the AmeriCorps program's sponsoring organization — and the University of Notre Dame, which operated an AmeriCorps program that placed students in Catholic schools.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled the program unconstitutional, because a “reasonable observer” would conclude that the AmeriCorps teachers had governmental imprimatur for all subjects they taught, even if they didn't count the religious classes in their hours. She also said the direct government payments to religious schools violate the First Amendment.
But the appeals court said AmeriCorps has sufficient safeguards in place to assure that government money is not being spent on religious instruction, and that the payments to religious schools come as a result of the private choice of the AmeriCorps program participants rather than direct governmental action.
“This is a key victory for the faith-based and community initiatives, but even better it's an extraordinary victory for the poor children who are served,” said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in a conference call with reporters shortly after the decision was handed down.
But a spokesman for a group that opposes Bush's plan and filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case said there are plenty more legal battles ahead over the issue.
“This is one skirmish in a much larger legal battle, and there are other cases pending in courts around the country that will give us a much better picture of where the judges stand on this issue,” said Joe Conn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “The AmeriCorps program, it seems to me, is set up quite differently from most faith-based programs…. So this just isn't going to be a good test.”
The case is American Jewish Congress vs. Corporation for National and Community Service.