U.S. District Judge John Shabaz handed the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation a victory Wednesday in ruling that federal funding of a prison mentoring program in Arizona violates the First Amendment prohibition against the promotion of religion.
Evidence produced by the foundation's attorney, Richard Bolton, in November caused the Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 16 to suspend the further funding of MentorKids USA. DHSS then asked Shabaz to dismiss the foundation's suit, contending it was moot.
However, Shabaz stated that although DHSS effectively conceded that federal funds have been used by the MentorKids program to advance religion in violation of the Constitution's establishment clause, it doesn't prevent him from ruling on the illegality of the practice. Shabaz also cited the failure by DHSS to ensure that the grant won't be reinstated as a reason not to dismiss the suit.
Speaking for the foundation, Annie Laurie Gaylor called Wednesday's ruling a victory the foundation can build on to challenge publicly funded faith-based organizations that provide social services without proper government oversight.
"We're not opposed to funding of mentoring programs, although I personally have doubts about their efficacy, but we're opposed to funding faith-based religious-infused programs that receive federal money," Gaylor said.
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Congress created the Mentoring Children of Prisoners program to provide support for children of incarcerated parents and gave equal footing to faith-based organizations seeking federal funding. The MentorKids program qualified in 2003 for a $225,000 three-year grant and received all but $75,000 of it before being cut off in December, Gaylor said.
In a 2003 memo to case managers, MentorKids President John Gibson said the program's mission statement was to "locate, train and empower mentors to be the presence of Christ to kids facing tough life challenges through one-on-one relationships," according to Shabaz's decision. Similar messages "permeate" the program's Web site and board minutes, the decision stated.
Gaylor said the DHSS response that it didn't know the religious mission of the program was "incredible."
"They said it was up to watchdog groups like ours to monitor the activities of groups getting federal funding. That says the government has no guidelines in place or desire to monitor these groups," she said.
Madison-area Urban Ministry's Mentoring Connections program received a federal grant last year and is currently recruiting and training up to 70 individuals to mentor children with parents in prison, said project facilitator Kermit Hovey.
Unlike MentorKids, Mentoring Connections has no faith requirement of its participants, he said.
"Mentors will provide a supportive, caring relationship involving regular weekly visits and social activities ... but the activities aren't proscribed by us and are largely up to the mentor, child and the child's family," Hovey said.
Questions about the amount of federal funding received and number of client families to be serviced were referred to Mary Kay Baum, MUM's executive director, who was unavailable for comment.
"We take pains to avoid running afoul of relevant guidelines and principles to ensure we don't violate the separation of church and state," Hovey said.
Gaylor said the case, in which former DHSS Secretary Tommy Thompson was the lone remaining defendant, was represented by federal attorneys in Washington who didn't return a phone call for comment before deadline.
Gaylor said she hadn't looked into Mentoring Connections operations and couldn't comment on them, but Shabaz's ruling was important because it would allow the foundation to pursue federally funded faith-based organizations that employ unconstitutional practices in their work.
"(MentorKids) is not the only case like that out there. ... We're very delighted to have a ruling we can use in the future and where we find a problem we'll continue our lawsuits," she said.