FFLC Files Amicus Brief with 4th Circuit in Support of Religious Students

Today, the Founding Freedoms Law Center filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Johnson v. Fleming, which was brought by our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom.

Read our amicus brief here.

Michael Sylvester, FFLC Litigation Counsel, authored the brief on behalf of five clients with a particular interest in religious education: the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the International Alliance for Christian Education (IACE), the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities (IABCU), and The Cardinal Newman Society.

In this case, three Liberty University students in religious degree programs challenged religious restrictions that Virginia imposes on two educational grants: (1) the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant (VTAG) and (2) the Virginia National Guard State Tuition Assistance Program (VANGSTAP).

Virginia denied two of the students a VTAG grant, which is worth up to $21,000, because they felt called to pursue undergraduate majors in Pastoral Leadership and Music and Worship, respectively. Yet both students are open to secular careers and may never engage in professional ministry. Concurrently, Virginia awards VTAG grants to others pursuing religious majors that are functionally identical, but which Virginia considers less religious.

Virginia denied the third student a VANGSTAP grant, which is worth between $4,500 and $10,000 a semester, because—after he joined the Virginia National Guard—he pursued and obtained a VANGSTAP-ineligible (but VTAG-eligible) religious undergraduate degree and is now studying for a Master of Divinity that is eligible for neither grant. Virginia does so even though his hope is to use the degree to serve the Commonwealth as a commissioned officer and Guard chaplain.

The case, originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that Virginia’s religious exclusions violate the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses. The case seeks to limit or overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004).

FFLC’s amicus brief examines how intervening Supreme Court precedent has eroded Locke’s foundations, rendering any expansion of Locke’s holding and application to this case inappropriate.