(The Center Square) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to end work study programs and internships he argues are unconstitutional and discriminate against religious students.
Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, is taking issue with laws and programs that have been in effect for decades, including one he voted for while he was a state senator. Prior to being elected attorney general, Paxton served in the Texas Senate from January 2013 to January 2015 until he took office as attorney general in 2015.
The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Travis County and names the board, commissioner, chair and board members as defendants.
The lawsuit argues the statutes establishing the programs, and the Texas College Work-Study Program, Texas Working Off-Campus: Reinforcing Knowledge and Skills (WORKS) Internship Program, and Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) Grant Program, are unconstitutional.
The board acts as “a partner, resource, and advocate to higher education institutions across the state” and is “a steward to the state’s strategic plan for higher education,” it states.
The WORKS program provides eligible students with jobs while attending higher education institutions and participating in mentorship programs, the board explains. The state legislature established it in 1989; rule changes were adopted in 2004 and amended multiple times through 2020, according to state records.
The internship program supports undergraduate public or private college students while “exploring career options, developing, and improving career readiness, and strengthening workforce skills,’’ the board explains. State statute authorizing the program dates to 1975, it was amended multiple times through 2005, according to state records.
The ACE grant program supports “efforts to prepare low-income students for entering careers in high-demand and significantly higher-earning occupations.”
It was established through HB 437, which Paxton voted for in May 2013, according to the legislative journal. The journal published the recorded vote stating, “All Members are deemed to have voted ‘Yea’ on the passage to third reading. The bill was read a third time and was passed by the following vote: Yeas-31, Nays-0.”
Paxton argues all three programs are authorized through “anti-Christian laws targeting religious students” previously passed by the state legislature, including himself, which “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,” Paxton said.
The programs violate the First Amendment because they exclude religious organizations and students receiving religious instruction from state funds and require state-funded activities to be “nonsectarian,” Paxton argues.
The requirement results in “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,” Paxton argues. “Recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent and case law has made clear that this kind of discrimination is unlawful.”
“Under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment and Article 1, Sections 6-7 of the Texas Constitution, Texas may neither exclude religious organizations from public benefits because of their faith, nor condition participation in state-funded programs on theological choices about worship, instruction, or proselytization,” the lawsuit states. “Nevertheless, the Board and the Board Members administer Texas programs prohibiting participants from engaging in sectarian activities, including sectarian courses of study, to be eligible to receive state benefits.
“In other words, these programs specifically exclude religious organizations and students with religious beliefs from receiving state-funded assistance and condition receipt of state benefits on nonreligious use. The Attorney General brings this action to protect Texans’ rights to religious freedom by preventing the Board and Board Members from continuing to enforce these unconstitutional laws and rules.”
The lawsuit requests the judge issue a permanent injunction to prevent the board from administering the programs.
Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt are challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. The Republican primary election is in March.
