Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier won’t enforce part of the state Constitution banning government funding for churches and other religious groups on the theory it violates the First Amendment, he claimed this week.
“This [Florida] constitutional provision reads as a prohibition barring religious entities from partaking in any grant program, no matter how they would use the funds,” Uthmeier wrote in a legal opinion released Thursday, advocating for the state’s ability to pay for religious charter schools and provide scholarships for religious universities.
“These provisions therefore have no place in our constitutional order,” he continued. “They actively undermine the central place religion plays in our Republic, which the Framers sought to guarantee by deploying the Religion Clauses.”
Uthmeier laid out a nine-page explanation for why he will refuse to enforce or defend various state laws and parts of Article I, Section 3, of the Florida Constitution. His arguments include that the separation of Church and State exclusively applies to the federal government; Christianity is at the “center of the nation’s identity;” and states can “encourage” Christianity as long as they don’t sacrifice individual rights in the process.
His push to widen the state and church intersection comes days before Easter, during the Roman Catholic Holy Week. It also falls amid a broader, Florida-wide conversation about how appropriate it is to spend taxpayer dollars on religious schools.
The conversation has spanned decades, ramping up months ago when Uthmeier called to cancel vouchers for Islamic schools he said propagated Sharia Law. Pointing to two Tampa schools that received millions in these vouchers, he claimed their alleged affiliation with members of the Muslim Brotherhood undermined “Western values.”
Just days ago, the Florida Legislature sent Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill demanding schools tied to state-deemed terrorists lose their tuition vouchers.
‘Secularist gloss’
Uthmeier in his opinion referred to the section of the Florida Constitution called the “No Aid Provision.”
“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,” it reads.
This is wrong, Uthmeier argued.
He cited a slew of founder remarks, court cases, and even Biblical text throughout, largely to assert that the United States was founded with Christianity in mind. Nowadays, Uthmeier says that’s been changed.
“Many have tried to force a modern, secularist gloss upon the First Amendment, but that reading cannot be squared with the overwhelming evidence of religion’s — and specifically Christianity’s — influence at the Founding and its intended role within our constitutional order,” he wrote.
He pointed to two state-level laws that he also declared invalid. One prevents students attending religious schools from accessing the Effective Access to Student Education grant, which provides scholarships to private, nonprofit colleges.
The other is a ban on state dollars funding religious charter schools. He called it a “blanket ban” that violates the First Amendment, citing two U.S. Supreme Court cases that found the exclusion of religious observers from otherwise available public benefits to be unconstitutional.
“Any law, or interpretation of the State Constitution, that violates this basic right will not — consistent with my oath — be enforced or defended by my office,” Uthmeier concluded.
Deborah Coffey says
Someone needs to give Mr. Uthmeier an IQ test. He was not elected and the public needs to know if he is even close to being qualified for the job.
Laurel says
The only people trying to force anything are the fake “Christian” politicians. There’s nothing in the state, or federal Constitutions that claim freedom of speech should be funded. Religion should not be government funded.
So, Republicans, what happened to rule of law? The current administrations just ignore the Constitution when they don’t like it.
Pogo says
Florida man
… turns out to be a reptile with human appearance who speaks English, without understanding it, and wages Jihad for Jesus.
The entire state government, for the past 27 years, has been in the claws of these creatures — whose election has been endorsed by subscribers to the WSJ, AND The League of the South.
Welcome to Floriduh’s age of post human/reptile crypto crook/CSA reenactor for Jesus government.
All that, and a bag of chips.
Yee-Haw
Koyote says
Didn’t DeSantis fire some elected officials because they said they wouldn’t enforce an unconstitutional law?
Goose and Gander, anyone?
Oh yeah, I forgot … We now live in an age where the President can defend himself doing something he wants to ban other people doing – justifying it by saying “Well, I’m the President”, and a Vice President who gets caught lying outright – and admitting it – and justifying it by saying that he wanted to “raise attention”, and stating he would do it again.
So, this bit of bullshit isn’t a surprise. And , him getting away with is not much of a surprise, either.
Koyote says
Just a follow up to the previous statement regarding our beloved VP – JD hisself.
It was just Sept 2024 on the campaign trail that JD got caught –
Sept 15th, 2024 –
“J.D. Vance tripled down on his debunked claims that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio, while also admitting, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
And here we are April 09th, 2026 –
Apr 09, 2026 – Confronted With Report the Pentagon Allegedly Threatened Vatican with Military Force –
” I’d like to actually talk to Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and frankly, to our people, to figure out what actually happened. I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
Apparently, it’s only a bad idea to offer BS opinions if the story doesn’t reflect badly on you and yours. Otherwise – we’re searching for the truth – and we’ll search until we find or make it up.
Also – Wasn’t JD just in Hungary pitching for the Incumbent Trumpeteer’s election – While deriding the EU for interfering in the election?
Wow – “The Many Faces of JD” – coming to Netflix soon
Dean Gallberry III says
Uthmeier, like a braying donkey, alarms everyone in the vicinity of possible danger. Unlike a useful donkey, his constant braying about non-issues is so tiresome it can only be ignored. Selling our donkey to a larger farm in Washington DC won’t help, he’ll just bray louder. He makes more ado about nothing than any attorney general I can remember in the 40+ years I have lived in Florida.