ADF attorney available to media after hearing over blocked funding for pharmacy school, scholarships
Activists groups blocked non-religious funding to Univ. of the CumberlandsWednesday, September 23, 2009
FRANKFURT, Ky. — Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Brian Raum will be available for media interviews Thursday following arguments at a hearing in Pennybacker v. Beshear, a lawsuit in which several activist groups are suing to stop the enactment of a bill that would provide funding for a pharmacy school and for student scholarships.
The University of the Cumberlands was approved to receive the public funding, but activists blocked the money through a lawsuit focusing on the institution’s religious beliefs rather than on the non-religious purpose of the funds. ADF attorneys and ADF-allied attorney Bryan Beauman of Lexington represent a group of state legislators who are appealing the decision. Attorney Kim Colby of the Christian Legal Society will argue at the hearing for the school.
“Christian schools shouldn’t be discriminated against and denied funding made available to other schools simply because they sincerely hold to their religious beliefs,” said Raum. “Funding of private institutions or facilities based solely on their religious affiliation has never been prohibited under Kentucky law, which instead focuses on whether such appropriations serve a non-religious purpose, and in this case, they do. Students are the ones who will ultimately suffer if this lawsuit is successful.”
The Kentucky General Assembly enacted a bill in April 2006 that granted $10 million to the University of the Cumberlands toward the construction of a pharmacy school building, as well as $2 million to begin a scholarship fund for the school’s students. Two months later, several groups advocating homosexual behavior sued Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher alleging the university cannot receive public funding due to religious-based policies, even though they are unrelated to the funding. The state legislature had passed the funding with a nearly unanimous vote and decided to intervene in the suit to protect their right to enact such legislation.
The activist groups filing the suit Pennybacker v. Fletcher (now Pennybacker v. Beshear) in 2006 received a judgment and order in their favor blocking the funding in March 2008, and ADF attorneys appealed.
- Fact sheet on the lawsuit
LEGAL DOCS
KY Supreme Court opinion: University of the Cumberlands v. Pennybacker
Judgment Order: Pennybacker v. Beshear
RELATED RESOURCES
Fact Sheet: Pennybacker v. Beshear
ABOUT Brian Raum
Brian Raum serves as senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund at its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he heads its marriage litigation team. Having earned his J.D. from the Regent University School of Law, he is admitted to the bar in the states of Virginia and New York, along with the federal bars in all the districts of New York, as well as the Central District of Illinois and the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 9th, 11th, and Federal Circuits. Before joining ADF in 2006, he worked for the American Center for Law and Justice as its New York state director and then engaged in private practice focusing on constitutional and civil litigation.