Updated Monday, April 07, 2008

Court dismisses Baptist church-state case

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

A federal court has dismissed a 10-year-old legal challenge brought by Kentucky taxpayers who questioned government funding of a Baptist social service agency.

The case involving Sunrise Children's Services, formerly known as Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, initially centered on the dismissal of Alicia Pedreira, who the agency learned was a lesbian. In 2001, a federal judge in Louisville, Ky., dismissed her claims of religious discrimination.

Pedreira and other taxpayers continued the suit, claiming that public funds were used for services "infused with the teachings of the Baptist faith."

Citing a recent Supreme Court decision, the same judge again ruled in favor of the agency, saying that the taxpayers did not demonstrate standing, or their right to sue the government.

In Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Supreme Court ruled last June that taxpayers affiliated with an atheist group did not have standing to challenge President Bush's faith-based initiative.

"We find that the claim of the taxpayers in this case is comparable to that in Hein," wrote U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Simpson III in a March 28 opinion.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union had represented the taxpayers in the case.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said lawyers are considering an appeal.

"It is a very sweeping reading of what I thought was a narrow ruling by the Supreme Court last year," Lynn said.