In a First-of-Its-Kind Example, Lambda Legal Announces Settlement Agreement that Lays Groundwork for Civil Rights Safeguards in Public Funding of Faith Based Organizations

(Washington, DC, November 5, 2003) - As the nation debates the new wave of government funding of faith-based social services, Lambda Legal today announced a lawsuit settlement requiring civil rights safeguards when faith-based organizations receive taxpayer dollars to provide social services.

The terms of the settlement dictate that faith-based organizations providing publicly funded child welfare social services in Georgia must do so without infringing on the rights of employees, taxpayers, recipients of services or religious groups.

The settlement will end a lawsuit Lambda Legal filed in August 2002 against the State of Georgia and the United Methodist Children’s Home in Decatur. The closely-watched lawsuit said taxpayer money was being used unconstitutionally to discriminate in employment and services at the United Methodist Children’s Home.

“This settlement is a significant breakthrough in the national debate over whether more taxpayer money should be given to religious organizations,” said Susan Sommer, Supervising Attorney for Lambda Legal and the lead attorney on this case. “Under the agreement, the State of Georgia will not fund religious groups that use public money to discriminate, and the United Methodist Children’s Home will follow policies prohibiting discrimination in hiring and services. There can’t be a sign on the door of a government-funded social services provider saying ‘Taxpayer-Funded Position: Jews and Catholics Need Not Apply’,” said Sommer.

To date, only two other lawsuits have addressed the question of public funding of religious groups that discriminate in employment; one was decided in favor of the employee, and the other is still in litigation.

“The White House has made public funding of faith based organizations a cornerstone of its domestic policy and several states have proposed using taxpayer money to fund religious groups - with no strings attached and no safeguards to prevent the kind of religious discrimination we saw in Georgia,” said Michael Adams, Director of Education and Public Affairs at Lambda Legal. “In this new era of public funding for social services provided by faith based organizations, we have made significant progress in this case by building in critical civil rights protections. A organization motivated by faith and funded with public money to provide important social services can do so, people who need services are protected from having to conform to a religion to get help, taxpayers don’t have to wonder what kind of religious activity their money is funding, and employees’ publicly funded jobs don’t depend on their personal religious beliefs.”

In the Georgia case, Lambda Legal represented Aimee Bellmore, Alan Yorker and several state taxpayers. Bellmore was a highly capable youth counselor at the Home who had been told that she would soon be promoted but was instead fired after the Home learned that she was a lesbian. Yorker, an exceptionally qualified psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience, interviewed for a position at the Home but was turned away when, as the interview began, a senior staff member at the Home realized Yorker was Jewish and told him that the Home does not hire Jews.

“This is an important step in protecting the civil rights of employees, and the safeguards the settlement provides for gay or lesbian youth in state-funded facilities are critical. Their food, shelter and care should not depend on their adherence to someone else’s religious beliefs about being gay,” said Bellmore.

The announcement of a settlement with both the State of Georgia and the United Methodist Children’s Home was made at a national conference of the Charitable Choice Research Project, a three-year, three-state study funded by the Ford Foundation and directed by the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment at the University of Indiana. It is the first academic study comparing efficacy of faith-based and secular providers of social services.

“We found that states did not monitor constitutional violations and did little to educate contractors about constitutional compliance,” said Sheila Suess Kennedy, the Charitable Choice Research Project principal investigator and professor of law and public policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. “We also found that congregational leaders had little familiarity with applicable constitutional constraints.”

Susan Sommer, Supervising Attorney at Lambda Legal, and Greg Nevins, an Atlanta-based Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office, handled the case. They are joined by co-counsel Debra Schwartz and Marcia Borowski of Thompson, Rollins, Schwartz & Borowski, LLC in Decatur, Georgia.

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Contact: Lisa Hardaway, cell: 402-369-2104, pager: 888-987-1971

Eric Ferrero, 212-809-8585 ext: 227, pager: 888-987-1984