In a case on remand from a federal district court (see
prior posting), a hearing officer in the Department of Agriculture's National Appeals Division held that the Department of Agriculture was wrong in denying a Christian pregnancy resource center eligibility for a direct loan under the agency's Community Facilities Loan Program. In
In re Care Net Pregnancy Center of Windham County, (Dept. Agr. Natl. App. Div., June 14, 2013), the hearing officer held that the loan denial because of voluntary Bible classes offered by Care Net to its clients violated the Department's rules properly construed:
These Department regulations do not prohibit Agency funding of Appellant’s Program loan since Appellant’s voluntary Bible classes do not impose an additional cost of facility construction or renovation (e.g., do not require the building of a chapel, sanctuary, church, worship center, or other building fixture principally used for inherently religious activities). If Appellant were to make its incidental and voluntary Bible classes mandatory or use coercion, or were to change its operations to become dominated by inherently religious activities and costs were imposed on secular activities, then a different analysis would result.
The hearing officer also held that the loan denial violates the Free Speech, Free Exercise and Equal Protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, saying in part:
Agency would have found Appellant eligible for the Program loan so long as Appellant keeps religious speech out of the building or segregated to a separate room – a literal religious gerrymander. Adopting Agency’s approach would require any religious discussion, regardless of whether it were to be initiated by Appellant or its clients, to cease and for the participants of that discussion to pause, leave the facility or room, and travel elsewhere to reengage in the discussion. This effect is more than an incidental burden on a particular religious practice or belief: it is significant pressure, which will almost certainly cause clients to end prematurely or avoid any religious discussion altogether. Such a burden would facilitate a “chilling effect” on such discussion....
Alliance Defending Freedom issued a
press release announcing the decision.
