 President Bush, left, makes remarks on No Child Left Behind reauthorization in the East Room of the White House, Monday, June 25, 2007, in Washington. |
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's faith-based initiatives got a boost Monday from the Supreme Court: a ruling that ordinary taxpayers cannot sue to stop conferences that help religious charities apply for federal grants.
President Bush called the 5-4 decision "a substantial victory for efforts by Americans to more effectively aid our neighbors in need of help."
The court blocked a lawsuit by a group of atheists and agnostics against eight Bush administration officials including the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The taxpayers set out "a parade of horribles" they contended could happen, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. None did and "in the unlikely event that any of these executive actions did take place, Congress could quickly step in," he wrote.
The ruling's effects are limited, opponents said.
"Most church-state lawsuits, including those that challenge congressional appropriations for faith-based programs, will not be affected," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Lynn called Alito's statement that Congress could step in "quite incredible because the damage is done when the president acts." Lynn said Congress cannot anticipate action by the president that might violate the constitutional separation of church and state. "We have the courts to do precisely this, rein in the president or the Congress," he said.
The taxpayers' group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money.
The justices' decision revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion.
That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas.
"This case falls outside" the narrow exception allowing such lawsuits to proceed, Alito wrote. Congress must provide a specific appropriation, he said, and in the suit over the administration conferences the White House pulled the money out of general appropriations.
In dissent, Justice David Souter said the court should have allowed the challenge to proceed.
The majority "closes the door on these taxpayers because the executive branch, and not the legislative branch, caused their injury," wrote Souter. "I see no basis for this distinction."
Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have gone further that the rest of the court, favoring a repudiation of the 1968 decision that in certain instances allows taxpayer lawsuits.
"We had an opportunity today to erase this blot on our jurisprudence, but instead have simply smudged it," Scalia wrote.
With the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Bush says he wants to level the playing field so religious charities and secular charities compete for government money on an equal footing.
Jim Towey, formerly head of the White House office, said the ruling is "good news for addicts and the homeless and others seeking effective social services."
"It's also a repudiation of the kind of secular extremism that ruled the public square for decades," said Towey, now president of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.
"It's a bad day for the First Amendment. The Supreme Court just put a big dent in the wall of separation between church and state," said Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way Foundation, a liberal-oriented group.
The White House program appears to have had a substantial impact.
In fiscal 2005, seven federal agencies awarded $2.1 billion to religious charities, according to a White House report. That was up 7 percent from the year before and represented 10.9 percent of the grants from the seven federal agencies providing money to faith-based groups.
Among the programs: Substance abuse treatment, housing for AIDS patients, community re-entry for inmates, housing for homeless veterans and emergency food assistance.
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