Establishment Clause Challenge To Funding Faith-Based Prison Program Upheld

In Moeller v. Bradford County, (MD Pa., Feb. 10, 2006), a Pennsylvania federal district court refused to dismiss taxpayers' Establishment Clause challenge to federal, state and local government funding given to Firm Foundation to operate the only vocational training program available in the Bradford County, Pennsylvania jail. The Firm Foundation, a Christian prison ministry, routinely proselytizes inmates in the vocational training program, and does not make an effort to segregate government funds for the purely secular purpose of vocational training. The court found that participation in the program was sufficiently coercive to constitute an Establishment Clause violation and rejected Firm Foundation's argument that it could not be a state actor covered by the Establishment Clause. The court also upheld plaintiffs' standing as taxpayers to challenge the use of federal funds for the program.