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December 2, 2003
Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Asks U.S.
Supreme Court to Reject Religious Discrimination
in State College Scholarship Awards
to Students
Today, the Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish
umbrella organization – through its Institute for Public Affairs, will
call upon the United States Supreme Court to guarantee that college
students who qualify for state-funded scholarships are not disqualified on
the basis of religiously discriminatory policies. The high court will hear
arguments in the case of Locke v. Davey in which the UOJCA joined in
filing a ‘friend of the court brief’ under the aegis of the National
Jewish Commission On Law & Public Affairs, which was principally authored
by Washington , D.C. attorney and Union board member Nathan Lewin.
The case arises from a decision by Washington State to revoke its award of
a “Promise Scholarship” to Joshua Davey. Washington established the
Promise program to reward achieving students and encourage their further
study in-state. Davey met all of eligibility criteria (which had nothing
to do with religion) and was awarded his Promise Scholarship. The
scholarship was revoked when the State learned that Davey decided to
attend Northwest College a (duly accredited Christian college) and pursue
as one of his two majors Pastoral Studies. Upon his scholarship being
revoked, Davey sued claiming that his constitutionally protected rights to
the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and equal protection
rights were violated. Washington State asserted that their revocation of
his scholarship was required by a state constitutional ban on public funds
supporting religious activity. (Washington’s “Blaine Amendment,” is shared
by 37 other state constitutions.) While a trial court ruled for
Washington, the federal appeals court ruled in favor of Davey. The U.S.
Court of Appeals stated that the policy disqualifying Davey “lacked
neutrality on its face” and that forcing Davey to choose between forgoing
his chosen course of study or foregoing his scholarship was a clear
violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which could not
be ignored on the basis of a state constitutional provision.
Nathan J. Diament, the Union’s director of public policy, issued the
following statement in connection with the case’s hearing:
Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the opportunity to repudiate
state policies and practices that seek to justify nothing other than
religious discrimination under the rhetoric of promoting the separation of
religion and state. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution wisely guaranteed
each American the individual liberty of the Free Exercise of religion. No
state should be permitted to deny a citizen from participating in a
program or receiving a benefit for which s/he duly qualifies because that
citizen engages in the fundamental right of religious exercise. We are
confident the Court will rule for Joshua Davey and against religious
bigotry.
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For more commentary on this case &
the COLPA legal brief, visit the following links:
(1)
The Jewish Times
(2)
The Washington Post
(3)
Pew
Forum
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