Attorney General Eric Holder is being urged to reverse the Bush Administration's decision to approve congressional grants earmarked to religious organizations in 2008 appropriations bills. Americans United filed a letter with the Justice Department yesterday.
“In providing these grants, the U.S. Department of Justice is unconstitutionally aiding religion,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United’s executive director. “There’s no reason why organizations that evangelize or that discriminate in hiring on religious grounds should ever receive a penny from the government, let alone millions of dollars.”
Added AU Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser, “The Bush administration approved these grants, paying no heed to their grave constitutional defects. I hope that the Obama administration discontinues this unlawful funding of religion and reviews future proposed grants to faith-based institutions much more carefully.”
You can read the letter (pdf) here. The grants in question include religious drug prevention and rehabilitation services, and abstinence-only youth programs among others.
