AJC Brief Supports Colorado Opposition to Aiding Religious Education

NEW YORK, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee filed an amicus brief supporting Colorado's refusal to provide state-funded assistance grants to "pervasively sectarian" colleges and universities. The brief was filed with the Tenth Circuit in the case of Colorado Christian University v. Baker.

"Colorado has the right to prevent state tuition grants from going to colleges and universities that explicitly promote a particular religion," said Jeffrey Sinensky, AJC's general counsel. "Any real enforcement of the separation of church and state requires that taxpayer dollars are not used to aid religious education."

The AJC brief was filed together with the American Jewish Congress, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, The American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Federation of Teachers.

"States have some latitude to exercise their own discretion and protect free exercise values to a greater degree then is mandated by the federal Constitution," the brief states.

For more than 100 years, AJC has been a staunch defender of church-state separation as the surest guarantor of religious liberty for all Americans. In 2003, it filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Locke v. Davey, supporting Washington State's refusal to provide public scholarship funds to students wishing to pursue a degree in theology.

"We agree with the State of Colorado that Locke controls this case," the AJC brief in Colorado Christian University v. Baker states.