FFRF filed an amicus brief on July 19, 2024 in support of the New Jersey Attorney General in a lawsuit surrounding the funding of church repairs. The New Jersey AG intervened in this lawsuit in order to protect the prior decision that ruled these grants to churches unconstitutional under the New Jersey Constitution.
This is related to a case that FFRF filed in 2015 regarding Morris County’s practice of issuing historic preservation grants to churches. That case was resolved in FFRF’s favor in 2018 after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Religious Aid Clause barred the use of taxpayer funds to repair and restore churches. This same issue was reopened in 2023 when a group of churches brought a new lawsuit arguing that recent Supreme Court decisions invalidated the previous decision.
FFRF’s brief argued that New Jersey’s Religious Aid Clause reflects a historic interest in not funding the building or maintenance of places of worship, specifically in order to avoid the religious strife that has historically followed from such government expenditures. It explained that if the plaintiffs are granted relief and given funding that it would result in inequitable financial support to favored religious groups and negative entanglement of religion and government, the exact consequences that New Jersey’s founders sought to avoid.
Local counsel Paul Grosswald filed the brief, which was drafted by FFRF Senior Counsel Sam Grover and legal intern Preston Bowden.
