The fight over whether states can exclude religious studies from publicly funded tuition programs has reached the nation’s highest court again, with a Liberty University student asking the Supreme Court to reconsider a ruling that has shaped the boundaries of religious liberty and government education grants for more than twenty years.
The Case at the Center
Bethany Hall, a Liberty University student pursuing a degree in youth ministries, was denied access to a $5,000 Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant solely because of her chosen field of study. On August 11, her legal team filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the justices to overturn Locke v. Davey, a 2004 ruling that allowed states to withhold tuition aid from students seeking theology degrees even when similarly situated secular students receive funding.
The path to the Supreme Court ran through a setback in the federal courts. On May 13, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Hall’s lawsuit against Virginia officials, siding with the state’s position that it could draw a line between religious and non-religious coursework when administering grant money.
The coalition of organizations backing Hall’s petition is substantial. The National Legal Foundation, Claybrook LLC, Troutman Pepper Locke, First Liberty Institute, and the Alliance Defending Freedom are all listed as counsel on the filing. Steven Fitschen of the National Legal Foundation put the constitutional argument plainly, telling EWTN News: “It is odious to our Constitution for a state to fund a degree in music but refuse to fund a degree in music and worship.”
The argument at the heart of the petition is that the government cannot treat religious academic pursuits as second-class compared to their secular counterparts when distributing taxpayer-funded benefits. For constitutional observers, the case tests how far the Supreme Court’s more recent religious liberty jurisprudence has traveled since 2004, given subsequent rulings that have steadily narrowed the government’s ability to exclude religious institutions and individuals from broadly available public programs.
California Parents Push Back on Charter School Rules
Hall’s petition is not the only religious education challenge recently sent to the Supreme Court. On August 20, three California parents filed their own petition after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shut them out of a state-run home-school charter program. California’s charter school system allows parents to direct their children’s education at home using state funds for curriculum materials. However, the state bars families from choosing religious curriculum and rejects submitted work samples when they contain religious content. The parents argue that this policy amounts to a direct penalty on religious practice, forcing families to choose between participating in a public benefit program and living out their faith.
By the Numbers
$5,000 — the value of the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant Hall was denied based on her field of study.
2004 — the year Locke v. Davey was decided, the same precedent Hall’s petition asks the Court to overturn.
August 11 and August 20 — the dates on which, respectively, Hall’s petition and the California parents’ petition were filed with the Supreme Court, reflecting a concentrated wave of religious liberty challenges arriving in Washington.
Two separate federal circuit courts — the 4th Circuit and the 9th Circuit — have ruled against religious claimants in these cases, setting up potential Supreme Court review.
Broader Significance
These cases arrive at a moment when the Supreme Court has shown increased willingness to scrutinize government programs that discriminate against religious participation. Rulings over the past several years have established that states generally cannot exclude churches and religious organizations from public benefit programs available to comparable secular entities. Whether the Court is now prepared to extend that reasoning into the domain of individual academic scholarships and home-school funding is the central question Hall and the California parents are pressing.
The stakes for taxpayers and families are real. Millions of dollars in state tuition assistance and charter school curriculum funds flow each year to students and parents across the country. If the Court agrees to take up either case, its ruling could determine whether a student’s faith disqualifies her from accessing the same public dollars her neighbor receives without question.
For American families who believe religious education is not a fringe activity but a constitutional right deserving equal treatment, the outcome could mark a decisive moment in the long legal contest over the boundary between church and state in publicly funded education.
Category: Constitution | Tags: Supreme Court, Religious Liberty, First Liberty Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom