ybvdadminuser(RNS) — The American Humanist Association is suing the West Virginia Water Development Authority to stop it from awarding a $5 million grant to a tiny out-of-state Catholic college, arguing that the grant violates the state constitution’s freedom of religion provision.
Last year, the water authority approved a $5 million grant to the Steubenville, Ohio-based College of St. Joseph the Worker for the expansion of its campus into neighboring West Virginia.
According to the grant proposal, about $2.1 million would create a real estate, development and construction company headquartered in Weirton, West Virginia, where students could learn building trades. But about $1 million of the $5 million grant would support a think tank called The Center for the Common Good that advocates against abortion. And $1.6 million would go toward scholarships for the recruitment of West Virginia students.
The American Humanist Association, which has a chapter in West Virginia, says the grant violates the state constitution, which says the state cannot favor one religion over another. The association is represented in the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the suit Monday (Jan. 13) in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
“That the government would use tax dollars, especially out of the water infrastructure fund, to fund a college that only grants degrees in Catholic studies and makes clear that its mission is to develop faithful Christians is an affront to the Constitution and an affront to West Virginians who are not Catholic,” said Fish Stark, executive director of American Humanist Association, a group that advocates for nonreligious Americans, including atheists.
There are 236 local American Humanist Association chapters across the country, said Stark. It may best be known for certifying humanist chaplains and celebrants.
The lawsuit represents a pushback to a decades-long effort by a network of politicians, church officials and activists who believe that the separation of church and state is illegitimate.
Marie Prezioso, the executive director of the West Virginia Water Development Authority, declined to comment to RNS, saying that any statements will come in public court filings or other public disclosures.
The West Virginia Constitution has a robust establishment clause. It says in part, “the Legislature shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any religious society, or the people of any district within this state, to levy on themselves, or others, any tax for the erection or repair of any house for public worship, or for the support of any church or ministry.”
According to the lawsuit, West Virginia violated this provision.
“Tens of thousands of West Virginians wonder every day where they will get clean drinking water,” Aubrey Sparks, the ACLU’s West Virginia legal director, said. “The College of St. Joseph the Worker has every right to exist and to educate its students in line with its religious worldview, but to force the taxpayers of West Virginia to fund its mission is wholly inappropriate and unconstitutional.”
The website for the college, which began holding classes with 31 student this past fall, says it “forms students into effective and committed members of their communities by teaching them the Catholic intellectual tradition while training them in skilled and dignified labor.” It offers one degree: a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic studies, and certification in carpentry, HVAC, electrical and plumbing. As of 2023, it had $800,00 in revenue and about $2 million in assets, according to its IRS 990 form.
