Locke v. Davey

The issue in this case is whether the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment requires the state to pay for ministerial training in an accredited college as part of general state scholarship program. Joshua Davey, a freshman at Northwest College, a private Christian school in Kirkland, WA, sought to use scholarship funds for his major in pastoral ministries. Disagreeing with the Ninth Circuit, the ACLU brief argues that the state can treat ministerial training differently than the study of religion as an academic subject. The latter must be funded as part of a general scholarship program; the former need not be.