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365Gay.com
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Judge:
Money For Anti-Gay
Baptist
School Wrong
From the
Web, March 7, 2008
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Frankfort, Kentucky -- A judge
ruled Thursday that Kentucky GOP lawmakers and former Gov. Ernie Fletcher
violated the state constitution by appropriating $11 million in state funding to
a Baptist university.
The state had argued that the money, to be used to create a pharmacy school at
the University of the Cumberlands, was for the betterment of the state's health
and welfare and therefore constitutional.
The LGBT rights group Kentucky Fairness Alliance filed a lawsuit along with
advocates for the separation of church and state and the Jefferson County
Teachers Association.
Named as defendants were the university, Fletcher and a dozen Republican
lawmakers.
Kentucky Fairness Alliance executive director Christina Gilgor called the ruling
a victory against state-subsidized discrimination.
The $11 million grant was approved by the GOP controlled legislature and despite
pressure to veto the measure Fletcher signed the appropriation but said the
funds would be held until after the legal question was resolved.
The legality of the grant grew out of a 2006 incident in which the university
expelled a student it found out is gay.
Jason Johnson, 20, was expelled after posting his sexual orientation on a Web
site.
The dean's list student received all Fs on his transcript when he was expelled.
Following public outrage the university agreed to allow Johnson to send in work
to finish his courses and receive final grades but he was barred from the
campus.'
Although the suit was filed by the Kentucky Fairness Alliance there was scant
mention of the Johnson situation in legal arguments.
Attorney David Tachau instead argued that the grant did not fall under the
heading of "health and welfare" and was instead in support of education at a
private, sectarian institution. That, said Tachau, makes it
unconstitutional.
In his argument he cited a 1983 ruling that said public money could not be used
to buy textbooks for private schools.
The university, represented by Timothy J. Tracey, of the Virginia-based Center
for Law & Religious Freedom, argued that the legislature acted responsibly and
legally by seeking to address the state's shortage of pharmacists.
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