Washington Post on Upcoming Florida Church-State Amendments
In today's Washington Post, Jacqueline Salmon profiles the upcoming ballot initiative in Florida which will remove a key religious liberty provision from the state Constitution and would pave the way for a new school voucher scheme after other attempts have failed.
At the end of the piece, we are finally reminded that the no-aid to religion provision does not prohibit religious groups from receiving public money for *secular* services.
As long as programs run by religiously affiliated organizations are delivering secular social services in a nondiscriminatory way, they are not affected by the Blaine Amendment or the Florida appeals court decision, said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida."We've had this in this country for decades and there is no constitutional impediment to that," Simon said. Proponents of removing the Blaine Amendment, he said, "want government funds in order to be able to engage in religious activities and discriminate on who is served and who is hired."