Rehearing Denied; Supplemental Opinion Issued In Notre Dame Funding Case

Yesterday, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing in Laskowski v. Spellings, (7th Cir., July 26, 2006), a case challenging on Establishment Clause grounds the receipt of federal funds by Notre Dame University for use by it to fund a Catholic teacher training program. In April, a 3-judge panel held that it was possible that the lower court could order Notre Dame to repay the $500,000 grant to the federal Treasury. Along with yesterday's denial of a rehearing, the original panel wrote a supplementary opinion clarifying that whether Notre Dame had to make restitution of the funds depended on whether or not it had reason to know that the grant it was receiving was illegal. The opinion pointed out that Congress cannot make grants to religious institutions without imposing conditions to assure that the funds will be used only for secular purposes. It continued: "Whether appropriate conditions were imposed by the Secretary of Education and were properly observed or implemented by Notre Dame are the issues on the merits that the district court will be resolving in the first instance on remand." The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reports on the decision.