Re: Catholic Charities Issue

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 18:23:30 -0800

I think Marci and Doug are spot on. The state, as in Rust,  says "this is our program, take it or leave it." CC says, "okay, we'll leave it."  CC loses a part of its ministry, the state loses one of its best adoption-service providers, and the kids stay in state custody longer (and, for some, perhaps permanently, since CC was extra good at placing hard-to-place children).
 
This is why some of us fight so hard against gay rights and gay marriage--gay rights/marriage are incompatible (at least in certain situations) with religious liberty. As in Massachusetts, the state has to choose between religious liberty and gay rights.
 
Some states choose gay rights. I choose religious liberty. I was born and raised in Massachusetts, but I couldn't live there now (and I don't think I even care to visit--not even if I had Monster seats at fenway).
 
Cheers, Rick Duncan
 


[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
What this dispute re: Catholic Charities illustrates is the danger of any religious institution in relying upon government funding for its programs.  Government funding always comes with strings.  In general, Catholic Charities gets 86% of its funding from government sources, 14% from private, with the vast majority of that coming from charities like United Way.  A tiny portion is paid by Catholics.  I would assume that on its own dime, CC can facilitate adoptions, but feel free to correct that assumption. 
 
The question is whether it is going to accept the condition placed on it by the government's money. &! nbsp;CC is not required to take the government's money, right?  This is the Solomon Amendment -- private institution that has become dependent on government largesse insists that it is entitled to that largesse and that the government should have no power to place strings on the money.  There is no First Amendment problem and certainly no "substantial burden" under RFRA.  If "substantial burden" means that religious entities can force the government to give them money on their own terms, we are quite literally on the other side of Alice's looking glass.
 
Marci
 
 


Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
 

"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered." --The Prisoner

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