A century-old provision of the Florida Constitution may soon be dusted-off for the first time before the state Supreme Court, with the fate of millions of dollars in state funding to religious organizations hanging in the balance.
The states First District Court of Appeal is asking justices to decide whether Florida has violated its constitutional ban on state money going to any church, sect, or religious denomination, or in aid of any sectarian institution.
The provision has been in the Florida Constitution since 1885, approved during an era of sweeping, anti-Catholic fervor. Florida is among 39 states with some version of a no-aid provision, a so-called Blaine amendment, named for the 19th Century Maine senator who promoted such prohibitions inspired by fear of a rising immigrant population.
While Florida embraced the ban a century ago, most experts say it has been applied loosely.
Millions of state dollars are budgeted each year for programs serving foster children, inmates, and low-income and elderly Floridians that are provided by religious-affiliated organizations.
Some fear the high court could put the brakes to that.
Everybody is waiting and watching this case, said Sheila Hopkins, an associate director with the Florida Catholic Conference. Our charities have never believed in giving people a loaf of bread and then making everybody pray. We do social work.
But a lot in the future may depend on how the court looks at this. Itd be devastating if these services were lost, she added.
Allison DeFoor, a former Monroe County sheriff and candidate for lieutenant governor now involved in faith-based prison counseling programs, sees the Blaine amendment as a gathering cloud.
A lot of my liberal, Democratic, Catholic friends tried to use the Blaine amendment to get rid of school vouchers a few years ago, DeFoor said. But I warned them, its going to come back and be used against Cedars of Lebanon Hospital someday.
Fearing that, charities earlier this year pushed lawmakers to put a measure on the November ballot that would eliminate the no-aid prohibition. But the proposed constitutional amendment failed to clear the Legislature leaving the high-stakes provision up to the courts.
The language of Floridas no-aid amendment is plain. But such religious organizations as Catholic Charities have sought to blunt any challenge by setting up non-profit, sectarian companies to perform social services an approach that even those who have brought Floridas constitutional challenge see as tolerable.
Those organizations that are set up as separate 501(c)3 charities who dont do work that includes proselytizing, I dont expect they would be affected by a courts ruling, said Tom Flynn, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, a New York nonprofit committed to advocating a non-religious lifestance.
The councils 2007 lawsuit against the states Department of Corrections and Prisoners of Christ and Lamb of God Ministries made its way through lower courts before the 1st DCA last month asked the state Supreme Court to decide a key question:
Whether the no-aid provision.prohibits the state from contracting for the provision of necessary social services by religious or sectarian entities.
The high court has not yet accepted the request, but the move is considered likely.
Floridas Blaine amendment first gained prominence during the 2006 challenge to the states private school voucher program. The 1st DCA ruled that Gov. Jeb Bushs first-in-the-nation statewide program violated the no-aid provision.
But by the time the case got to the Supreme Court, justices instead ruled vouchers unconstitutional because they violated another constitutional standard one requiring that the state provide a uniform system of public schools.
Soon after that Supreme Court sidestep, the Council for Secular Humanism brought its challenge. If successful in Florida, Flynn said the organization hopes to bring similar lawsuits in other states where no-aid standards endure and are mostly ignored.
Flynn said a Florida Supreme Court ruling could set a bright line separation between government and religious programs that could be mirrored nationwide. Increasingly, he said, states have begun to finance overtly religious programs for refugee services, homeless shelters, and substance-abuse programs.
The two religious organizations contracted with the Florida DOC to provide faith-based substance abuse housing programs.
Since the Bush administration nationally, and with the presidents brother in Florida, youre seeing more and more of these groups filling niches, Flynn said.
While Floridas no-aid amendment has been around since 1885, it got toughened up during a 1968 constitutional review. But in a strange twist, those who pushed applying the once-condemned, anti-Catholic Blaine measure to all government spending not just state spending were a handful of Catholic lawmakers.
We were concerned for the religious institutions, said Ken Plante, a longtime Capitol lobbyist and former Orlando state senator. We wanted to have separation because we feared that if religious organizations start accepting state money, the state could control them.
At that time, we werent so concerned about keeping religion out of government, but rather keeping government out of religion, Plante said.
