Bush: Church-Influenced Governments Are No Good For Arabs; But They're OK For Us

In a newly disclosed legal memorandum (as reported by the New York Times), the Bush administration says it can bypass laws that forbid giving taxpayer money to religious groups that hire only people who share their faith (i.e., violate the federal civil rights laws).

The administration, in an eight-year battle to lower constitutional barriers between church and state, made the claim in a 2007 Justice Department memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel. It was quietly posted on the department’s Web site last week.

Many grant programs without explicit anti-discrimination language have been routinely exploited by the Bush administration to funnel funding to religious groups that violate civil rights laws. But the newly discovered memo goes further, saying that the government can violate the provisions of federal programs that even have explicit anti-discrimination provisions-- and give money to groups that do actually discriminate.

The memo in question approved a $1.5 million grant to World Vision, a group that hires only Christians. The memo said the government could violate anti-discrimination laws because of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which permits exceptions to a federal law if obeying it would impose a “substantial burden” on people’s ability to freely exercise their religion. No details were provided on why requiring World Vision to hire a Muslim bookkeeper (for example) would be an undue hardship on its mission to help combat youth violence (the reason it applied for the grant).

Several law professors who specialize in religious issues called the Bush administration's argument legally dubious. Ira C. Lupu, a co-director of the Project on Law and Religious Institutions at George Washington University Law School, said the opinion’s reasoning was “a very big stretch.”

Carl H. Esbeck, a University of Missouri law professor and architect of the religion-based initiative movement, defended the opinion, saying, “Why should World Vision be denied the opportunity that everyone else has to compete for funding simply because of their religion?” [note from the DD: because they violate one of our most basic civil rights laws, moron!]

In similar fashion back in 2002, the Bush administration obtained "legal" clearance (via DOJ memo) on the use of harsh interrogation techniques-- despite a federal statute and numerous previously-approved treaties forbidding torture. The legal reasoning concocted by the DOJ was strongly criticized by legal scholars after the memo was leaked to the public, and the Justice Department rescinded it.

The next administration would be free to rescind this newly-disclosed memorandum. Barack Obama has said taxpayer money should not go to programs that discriminate by faith in hiring, a condition McCain has not embraced.