Florida can fund religious charter schools, ‘encourage’ religion, state AG says

Incoming funding application from The Satanic Temple.

From the article: *"“Unfortunately, some Florida laws prohibit religious schools from accessing public funds. That’s why during this Holy Week I issued a formal legal opinion concluding those laws are unconstitutional and my office will not enforce them,” Uthmeier stated in a video posted on X."* Wowzers.

I feel like the use of single quotations around 'encourage' was fitting in that title. Because the AG is attempting to do modern Manifest Destiny.

Congratulations to Floridians whose taxes will be funding institutions that aren’t taxed.

The irony is heavy. Because of the things I have seen in the state of Florida, it's mere existence is proof there is no God. There however may be a devil, and I'm pretty sure they live in Miami.

These people can't hide behind the bible anymore. They have zero credibility supporting pedophiles and criminal conmen, and trying to force their religion on people is not going to work.

The state madrassas of Florida ?

So it's against the first amendment to disallow public funding of religious schools.....as long as those schools are christian schools. Sounds ripe to get struck down.

If they want to allow this, then the church can pay taxes.

This was FL's way to try to get St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond reheard, but they are morons. In the St Isadore case, Oklahoma approved an online (100% virtual) Catholic charter school to be funded by the school district. Cue legal fights, which ended with the Oklahoma Supreme Court saying no by a 6-2 margin. The case was appealed to SCOTUS, and was heard in 2025. Then a plot twist. Amy Coney Barrett recused herself because before she was put on the SCOTUS bench she had been involved in the case (her religious liberty clinic represented the school). This resulted in a 4-4 *tie*, and under SCOTUS rules ties go to the last ruling that stuck so the OK Supreme Court's rejection of the public funds for the charter school stood. Based on her record she probably would have voted *in favor* of the school. Not a guarantee, but Draft Kings would probably have given odds on it. A couple of similar cases are on the SCOTUS track and have a good chance of getting there in the next year or three. The Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville v. Knox County (Tennessee) The National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School v. Drummond (Oklahoma) And there's a Riverstone Academy in Colorado that is starting to form - if it was a weather system the National Hurricane Center would flag it as a tropical wave that might develop into something. If this was any state other than Colorado I'd ignore it, but Colorado has a habit of crushing things like this with a sledgehammer when they need a surgeon, and then they get smacked down for using excessive force. Meanwhile, Florida lumbers in and tries to by the Shih Tzu barking its head off being the tough guy in court while the Belgian Malnois and Cane Corsos are squaring off for a real fight.

Florida: Religiously Dumb. (Yes, I am cognizant that I live in a similar state).

Great, I can’t wait to watch the parents fighting in the streets over which flavor of religion to put in the schools!

F****** gross

Yeah. I never went to law school and I am not a constitutional scholar, but the Florida AG is making up bullshit. Just like the federal government, states cannot implement there own state run religion. Freedom of religion means you can practice any religion you want or none at all. Beyond that, the Florida AG cannot declare a law unconstitutional because he says so. The court would have to decide that.

For everyone talking about the Satanic Temple or Islamic madrassas, that’s not happening. Florida is not going to apply the rules fairly or evenly. It will be entirely Christian schools, with maybe a few Jewish ones to feign fairness.

Encourage which religion?

Oh so Florida is trying to pull a Texas.

Even charter schools in Florida are closing due to the high amount of students home schooling.  Florida ranks #2 overall for Charter school closures.

Floriduh!

This is unconstitutional.

Unfortunately there is precedent for this because Iowa has been allowing taxpayer money to go to private and charter schools for about three years now.

Pastafarian school, anyone?

If only I registered a fetal sacrifice church as a religion a few years ago. I didn't think it would make a difference in a sane world. I love how we just bombed Iran and Afghanistan for forcing religion on children.

The Constitution says otherwise. F*** these Republican Christofascists.

>Moreover, Uthmeier’s legal opinion argues the First Amendment’s clause preventing the establishment of a particular religion only applies to the federal government, and the states are free to impose their own state religion. This is one of many reasons I'm boycotting the states of Texas and Florida for travel. The politicians in these states are leading the way in destroying our country.

So Muslim schools are going to get money, right?

F*** the Confederacy

Is America going to create the next generation or religious zealots.

Can I ask a question. Does the US Constitution come in three ply or is it just single ply?

Why does anyone with a working brain live in Florida?

This can get a bit tricky to analyze. Here is the provision from the Florida Constitution to which the FLAG refers: > No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution. This is not that dissimilar from a provision in the Missouri Constitution, which reads: > no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion Missouri had a policy under this provision of its Constitution which denied a grant to a religious school for playground resurfacing, while providing grants to similarly situated non-religious groups. In 2017, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling which says Missouri's policy violated the rights of Trinity Lutheran under the Free Exercise Clause by denying the church an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status. Roughly speaking, the controlling doctrine here is "A state government may not make a funding decision based on the religious character of the recipient." That principle means, whether I like it or not, the FLAG is correct here.