Constitutional Standards and Court Decisions
The U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the fifty states protect the religious freedom of institutions as well as persons and require that government favor neither a religion nor secularism. These are the fundamental principles also of the faith-based initiative. The initiative is sometimes criticized, particularly by those devoted to an extreme version of the separation of church and state, as a deliberate attempt to override the religion clauses of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. But it is more accurate to see it as an effort to bring government policy and practice into line with the current U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of those religion clauses.
Although a number of recent court decisions have gone against government agencies or faith-based organizations that have received government funds, these decisions are challenges to how the principles of the faith-based initiative were applied in those instances, not to the basic principles themselves.
Court Validation of Beneficiary-Choice Contracting
