Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a new legal challenge targeting three state-funded higher education programs that he argues unlawfully prevent religious students and faith-based groups from accessing public benefits.
Filed Monday in Travis County District Court, the lawsuit centers on three programs administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB): the Texas College Work-Study Program, the Texas WORKS Internship Program, and the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Grant Program.
Paxton contends these programs include “nonsectarian” limitations that violate constitutional protections and improperly exclude Christian ministries and students of faith from taxpayer-funded benefits.
According to the filing, these programs “violate the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment and Article 1, Sections 6-7 of the Texas Constitution by excluding religious organizations and students with religious beliefs from state-funded benefits, conditioning participation on nonsectarian activities, and prohibiting religious activities such as sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytization.”
Paxton’s office argues that such restrictions create a “wholesale exclusion of certain people — no matter how otherwise eligible — from state benefits under the program based solely on the religious character of their course of study,” including a complete ban on seminary students participating in the work-study program.
The lawsuit draws on recent U.S. Supreme Court precedents that have struck down comparable limitations on religious participation in public benefits programs. Paxton asserts that “governments cannot deny access to public benefits simply because applicants are religious or engage in religious activity,” claiming that the restrictions amount to unconstitutional discrimination that burdens religious expression and inserts the state into theological determinations.
“Texas may neither exclude religious organizations from public benefits because of their faith nor condition participation on theological choices,” the complaint reads. The attorney general’s office is asking the court to declare the programs unconstitutional.
Paxton defended the lawsuit in strong terms: “These anti-Christian laws targeting religious students must be completely wiped off the books. Our nation was built by patriotic Americans who had the freedom to express their religious beliefs without fear of being targeted, and we will honor that heritage by upholding the First Amendment in Texas,” he said.
