April 22, 2010 /

Ky. Supreme Court Rules Private Baptist College Can’t Keep State Funds

For this to happen in Kentucky is pretty amazing: The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Baptist university can’t keep $11 million awarded by state lawmakers some four years ago to open a pharmacy school. The case, which involves the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, had been closely watched by advocates for other […]

For this to happen in Kentucky is pretty amazing:

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Baptist university can’t keep $11 million awarded by state lawmakers some four years ago to open a pharmacy school.

The case, which involves the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, had been closely watched by advocates for other church-affiliated schools that have largely been excluded in the past from state funding for construction projects.

A trial court judge had ruled in 2008 that the appropriation to the private, church-affiliated university violates the state constitution. The university’s attorneys appealed directly to the supreme court, skipping the court of appeals, in hopes of expediting a decision.

Lawmakers had appropriated $10 million in 2006 to build a pharmacy school on the southeastern Kentucky campus and an additional $1 million for scholarships for pharmacy students.

[SNIP]

The gay-rights group Kentucky Fairness Alliance filed the lawsuit in 2006 after the University of the Cumberlands expelled a gay student for posting comments about his sexual orientation and dating life on the Internet. Attorneys for the organization tried using the expulsion to bolster their arguments in the lawsuit that the school shouldn’t receive funding from Kentucky taxpayers.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to take up a similar case in the near future. Hopefully the decision will go the same way.

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