MD Christian school to court: Stop govt from demanding $100K from us for our beliefs

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb regarding a motion filed Thursday in Bethel Ministries v. Salmon that asks a federal district court to stop Maryland officials from acting against a church-run school while its lawsuit moves forward. ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit after Maryland revoked the Baltimore-area school’s eligibility to participate in a voucher program benefiting low-income students and demanded the school pay back more than $100,000 for its previous participation in the program:

“The government can’t discriminate against religious schools simply because it dislikes their religious beliefs. Yet that is exactly what the state of Maryland is doing by excluding Bethel Christian Academy from a voucher program for which it was fully qualified based solely on the school’s religious views. That is why we are asking the court to stop the state from any further action against the school while this lawsuit moves forward. Bethel met every requirement of the state program for two years, and Maryland—acting without any complaint—didn’t just expel Bethel from the program; it is now demanding over $100,000 from this school, which offers low-income students a high-quality education. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled as recently as 2017 in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer that the government can’t exclude religious groups from a neutral government program just because of their religious character.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.