by Kathleen Haughney
The News Service of Florida
A sharply divided Florida appeals court has asked the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether state contracts with faith-based groups violate the state constitution.
The question stems from a case against the Department of Corrections and its contracts with faith-based groups to provide transitional post-prison housing services. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in December that the contracts possibly violated a part of the constitution that says the state will not give aid or money to a particular religious group.
But the issue wasn’t fully explored at the lower court level, the appeals court said, because the judge was asked to issue a ruling without hearing all of the facts. So the case was sent back to circuit court.
On Tuesday, the court denied the department and two of the contractors, Prisoners of Christ Inc. and Lamb of God Ministries Inc., a rehearing, but asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on part of the case and decide whether state contracts with faith groups violate Florida law.
Florida courts, in particular the 1st DCA, previously waded into the area of religion and government when it struck down Jeb Bush’s school voucher program in Bush v. Holmes. But the state Supreme Court threw out vouchers for another reason, uniform school standards, and never addressed the religion issue. And the voucher rulings didn’t contemplate situations outside of the education realm.
“Because our decision in this case is the first instance in which the Florida no-aid provision has been applied outside of the school context and because our decision could affect the manner in which the state contracts for social services, we certify the following question of great public importance,” wrote Appeals Judge William Van Nortwick in the majority opinion.
The case split the DCA with seven members supporting the majority opinion, two dissenting with no opinion and five dissenting with an opinion.
Judge Brad Thomas wrote in the dissent that the court should rehear the case and noted the huge impact the case will have.
“The panel’s opinion here will apply Holmes for the first time beyond the context of school vouchers, thus potentially jeopardizing a wide range of governmental social welfare programs, including faith-based placement programs for foster children, faith-based prison programs, and other state contracts with faith-based providers,” he wrote.
If the Supreme Court does decide to weigh in, its decision could possibly be rendered moot. There are proposed constitutional amendments before the Legislature that would eliminate the no-aid portion of the constitution. However, it needs 60 percent approval in both chambers, plus 60 percent voter approval to change the constitution.