In Bethel Ministries, Inc. v. Salmon,(D MD, Dec. 10, 2021), a Maryland federal district court held that the free speech rights of a Christian elementary school were violated when the state disqualified it from participating in a scholarship program for disadvantaged students attending private schools. The school lost its eligibility because its handbook set out a policy inconsistent with sexual orientation non-discrimination provisions. The court held that this amounted to an unconstitutional viewpoint-based condition on the school's ability to receive government funding. The court said in part:
Defendants have failed to put forth any evidence that Bethel’s policy has deterred a single prospective applicant from applying for admission at Bethel, let alone any evidence that Bethel has ever denied admission, expelled, or disciplined a student on the basis of sexual orientation.... Instead ... the record reflects that Defendants focused exclusively on the text of Bethel’s handbook....
The text of Bethel’s policy alone is not evidence of discriminatory conduct; the text of the policy is speech.... [E]xcluding Bethel ... based on the text of its admissions policy alone ... is a regulation of speech, not a regulation of conduct....
Not only was Defendants’ decision to exclude Bethel from BOOST eligibility based on Bethel’s speech, but it was based on the specific viewpoints Bethel chose to express in its admissions policy...
ADF issued a press release announcing the decision.
