Supreme Court allows states to deny scholarships to theology students

Published: 2004-02-26

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- States do not have to provide tax-funded scholarships to college students who are pursuing careers in ministry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 25. In a 7-2 vote in Locke vs. Davey, the court said that the Washington Promise Scholarship program -- which provides scholarships to low-income, academically qualified college students -- did not unlawfully discriminate against students studying theology or violate their First Amendment right to religious freedom. Joshua Davey, the student at the center of this debate, won a $1,125 merit scholarship in 1999 but was denied the ability to use it when he told officials at Northwest College in Kirkland, Wash., that he planned to use the money to pursue a theology degree. Davey then sued the state of Washington and a U.S. District Court ruled in the state's favor, but a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision and called the state's policy unconstitutional. "That a state would deal differently with religious education for the ministry than with education for other callings" is not evidence of hostility toward religion, wrote Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in the court opinion. He also said the decision was in keeping with the nation's long tradition of welcoming the free expression of religion while frowning on government endorsement of it.

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