Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week filed suit in a Texas state trial court against the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and its Board members claiming that conditions imposed in the state's work-study program, its WORKS internship program for college students, and its Adult Career Education grant program for non-profit institutions cooperating with educational institutions in job training violate the 1st Amendment's Free Exercise clause. The complaint (full text) in Paxton v. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, (TX Dist. Ct., filed 11/12/2025), alleges in part:
To participate in the Work-Study Program, however, an eligible institution or other employer must provide employment to an eligible student “in nonpartisan and nonsectarian activities.”... These requirements effectively eliminate religious organizations with only sectarian employment opportunities from participating in the Work-Study Program and condition the receipt of State funds on nonsectarian use. The Work-Study Program also excludes students “enrolled in a seminary or other program leading to ordination or licensure to preach for a religious sect or to be a member of a religious order” from participating and receiving state funds.... This amounts to a wholesale exclusion of certain people—no matter how needy—from state benefits under the program based solely on the religious character of their course of study.,,,
And like the Work-Study Program—to be eligible to participate—employers in the WORKS Program must provide employment in nonsectarian activities to students in the program....
A rule established by the Board ,,, prohibits organizations receiving ACE Grant Program funds from using the funds for “religious activities, such as sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytization.”...
... When a state program is otherwise generally available, use-based conditions like the Sectarian Exclusions and Use Restriction are impermissible under the First Amendment.... Moreover, such laws targeting religious practice are not facially neutral and are, therefore, subject to strict scrutiny under the First Amendment....
The AG's office issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit. The Black Chronicle reports on the lawsuit.
