CHARLESTON, W.Va.
The U.S. Department of Justice is backing a Mormon student who lost his state-funded, merit-based scholarship because he left West Virginia University to serve a two-year church mission.
The department’s Civil Rights Division filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week in U.S. District Court in Charleston on behalf of David Haws.
Haws is suing the state PROMISE Board, alleging it violated his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion. His attorney argues that by denying Haws’ request for a leave of absence, the board forced him to choose between his religion and his PROMISE scholarship.
The justice department noted that the PROMISE Board grants deferments for military and community service, and by denying a deferral for religious purposes, the board was placing a lower value on religious deferments.
Haws’ attorney, John Matthews with the West Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says he was surprised by the federal government’s support.
“Obviously you don’t always see or think of the ACLU and the Bush Administration being on the same side,” he says. But “even the conservative Bush Administration” sees a “clear Constitutional violation on behalf of the Promise Board.”
