Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit alleging the programs prevent faith-based organizations and religious students from receiving taxpayer benefits.
By Catholics for Catholics
Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, filed a lawsuit against three state-funded higher education programs he alleges prevents faith-based organizations and religious students from receiving taxpayer benefits, which is unconstitutional.
Filed in Travis County’s District Court on Monday, the suit marks an exceptional instance for Paxton, an outspoken Republican who in September was accused of a “sex scandal” with an aspiring Christian influencer, according to The Christian Post. He is now turning his sights on a fellow state entity.
The complaint alleges that three state-run programs — Texas College Work-Study Program, the Texas WORKS Internship Program and the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Grant Program, all run by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) — include “nonsectarian” restrictions that encroach upon the First Amendment and wrongly impede Christian ministries and religious students from taking part in taxpayer-funded benefits
Paxton’s office is asking the court to declare the programs unconstitutional.
The Attorney General contends these initiatives “violate the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment and Article 1, Sections 6-7 of the Texas Constitution by excluding religious organizations and students with religious beliefs from state-funded benefits, conditioning participation on nonsectarian activities, and prohibiting religious activities such as sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytization.”
The complaint depicts these provisions as forming a “wholesale exclusion of certain people — no matter how otherwise eligible — from state benefits under the program based solely on the religious character of their course of study,” comprising a complete omission of students enrolled in seminary programs from the work-study initiative.
Citing a string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have struck down similar marginalizations, Paxton’s suit contends that “governments cannot deny access to public benefits simply because applicants are religious or engage in religious activity,” which would effectively render the programs’ restrictions a form of impermissible discrimination that burdens religious expression and involves undue theological judgments, according to the filing.
“Texas may neither exclude religious organizations from public benefits because of their faith nor condition participation on theological choices,” the complaint states.
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