Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit targeting three university work-study programs that discriminate against religious students. The taxpayer-funded programs involved in the filing are the Texas College Work-Study Program, the Texas Working Off-Campus: Reinforcing Knowledge and Skills (“WORKS”) Internship Program, and the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (“ACE”) Grant Program.
According to Paxton, the programs contain “nonsectarian” restrictions that violate the First Amendment and block Christian entities and religious students.
“These anti-Christian laws targeting religious students must be completely wiped off the books,” Paxton said in a statement. “Our nation was built by patriotic Americans who had the freedom to express their religious beliefs without fear of being targeted, and we will honor that heritage by upholding the First Amendment in Texas.”
“Texas may neither exclude religious organizations from public benefits because of their faith, nor condition participation in state-funded programs on theological choices about worship, instruction, or proselytization,” the lawsuit says. “Nevertheless, the Board and the Board Members administer Texas programs prohibiting participants from engaging in sectarian activities, including sectarian courses of study, to be eligible to receive state benefits.”
“Under the Establishment Clause, exclusion of religious institutions based on theological or sectarian character amounts to impermissible discrimination,” the filing adds.
Earlier this year, Paxton advocated for public schools to implement a dedicated time for prayer and reading the Bible.
Under Senate Bill 11, the “board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school that is not operated by or affiliated with a religious organization” to “adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day.”
