The Supreme Court issued an opinion Wednesday that would allow states to restrict scholarship funds to students pursuing degrees in divinity.
The 7-to-2 decision to uphold the state of Washington's policy to deny scholarship funds to students pursuing degrees in devotional theology carries far-reaching implications for the Bush administration's social policy goals, which include providing federal money to religiously-based organizations and offering vouchers for religiously-affiliated schools.
Students attending Dartmouth would not be affected by the ruling, as the College's religion program takes a secular approach to religious studies. The appellant in the case, Joshua Davey, filed suit when he was denied state scholarship funds to study pastoral ministries at Northwood College in Kirkland, Wash.
The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, did not address school vouchers or faith-based programs. But, it supported Washington's interest in avoiding the establishment of religion and rejected the notion that refusing funds to Davey represented an infringement the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the Constitution.
Rehnquist wrote that the state's policy was an example of an action permitted under the establishment clause but not required under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
Campus religious leaders agreed with the Court's majority. Father Brendan Buckley, chaplain and director of Aquinas House, said he did not see the decision as discriminatory or as an impediment to Davey's free exercise of his faith.
"I actually don't have a problem with the Court's decision. It's my thought that he wasn't denied the ability to study. He wasn't going to get funded by the state. I think that's fair because it's the state's money," Buckley said.
Although Rabbi Edward Boraz declined to comment directly on the case, he said it was important to maintain a separation between church and state.
"In terms of the principle of the separation between church and state, it is important for us to safeguard that principle because it is one of the foundations upon which our country is based," Boraz said.
Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented on the basis that Washington's policy discriminated against those who wished to study religion.
"The indignity of being singled out for special burdens on the basis of one's religious calling is so profound that the concrete harm produced can never be dismissed as insubstantial," Scalia wrote.
At Northwest College, Davey studied pastoral ministries and business management. According to Northwest College's website, the school's mission is "to provide, in a distinctly evangelical Christian environment, quality education ... in the student's preparation for service in the world, help to fulfill the Great Commission and to propagate the historic faith of the sponsoring church."
Although Washington's Promise Scholarships could be used at the institution, the state denied money to Davey because of his pursuit of a degree in "devotional theology."
Religion professor Susan Ackerman said the Court's decision was appropriate, given Northwest's approach to religious education.
"[Northwest College is] promoting a very specific religious view. It's not about studying religion generally, and it's not even about broadly preparing for a degree in the ministry," Ackerman said. "[The decision] is completely right, that the state doesn't fund that type of education. That to me is about using state funding to promote a very particular and specific religious view."
"That's always what we've said in this country the state should not be promoting," Ackerman added.
Ackerman also contrasted the "devotional" approach Washington refused to fund with Dartmouth's religion department.
"Religion is taught as an academic discipline whose goal is to help students understand what we see as a major historical and social aspect of the human experience," Ackerman said.
