Truth Family Bible Church has filed suit claiming the school district's action infringes upon the church's free exercise of religion and free speech. The church cites that the Sage International, affiliated with Treasure Valley schools, used the Blaine Amendment to cut the church’s lease, which previously allowed them to use meeting space within the public charter school.
The Blaine Amendment is a law within a state that obstructs the use of public funds to benefit religious organizations.
Recently, it was reported by Idaho Education News that the state’s attorney general is intervening in the case for the side of the state.
Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), says this is a clear act of state hostility.
“The Supreme Court has made it very clear that the government cannot be discriminatory and hostile towards an organization or institution just because it's religious, when it's allowing other organizations, secular groups, to have the same type of services being denied to the religious group," states Dacus.
He says the PJI has filed a major federal lawsuit in this matter, hoping that it will eventually go before the Supreme Court.
"If we at Pacific Justice Institute are successful in this litigation, it could result in the complete, removal of the Blaine Amendment as effective law in many states across the country, ending this tool of religious bigotry and discrimination," Dacus says.
