Contrary to the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters are intent on injecting Christian religion into public schools.
Article 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution states, “Provisions shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of the state and free from sectarian control.”
With the blessing of both Stitt and Walters, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, in a split vote, approved an application for the nation’s first religious charter school whose primary mission would be the inculcation of Catholic doctrine into its students.
Article 2, Section 5, of Oklahoma’s Constitution decrees, “No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion…” And federal courts have ruled that schools must maintain neutrality among faiths rather than preferring one or more religions over others.
In contrast to events in Oklahoma, a federal district judge in West Virginia ruled last week that an atheist inmate cannot be compelled to participate in a religion-based substance-abuse program that is a prerequisite for parole.
The Mountain State’s substance-abuse treatment program “has never previously faced judicial scrutiny,” Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote. However, numerous courts have reviewed similar programs in other states “and unanimously found them to contain such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled participation” in them is unconstitutional because they violate the Establishment Clause, Goodwin wrote in an opinion issued July 18.
The lawsuit was brought by Andrew T. Miller, an inmate who alleged religious coercion while in the custody of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR).
Miller demonstrated conclusively that he was denied parole “at least in part because of his refusal to participate in religious exercises that violate his beliefs.” Miller describes himself as “an atheist and secular humanist” and objects to the “pervasively religious” nature of the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) program administered by the WVDCR.
Miller is in the third year of a 1- to 10-year indeterminate sentence on a conviction for breaking and entering. Absent parole he is projected to be released in April 2025, records indicate. However, the Parole Board has interviewed him three times “and has thus far declined to grant him parole,” the judge noted.
Miller alleges – “and the defendants do not dispute” – that his refusal to complete RSAT “contributed significantly to the Board’s decisions to deny him parole.”
Consequently, Miller sued the commissioner of the WVDCR, the RSAT program manager, the WVDCR’s director of classification, the deputy director of programs for the WVDCR, the superintendent and the RSAT unit manager of the Saint Mary’s Corrections Center (SMCC) and Jail where Miller was incarcerated.
Substance abuse was not a factor in the offense for which Miller was convicted, but he admits he is a recovering addict and “believes in the disease model of addiction.” Prior to incarceration he received secular treatment and maintained sobriety for four years.
The federally funded WVDCR substance abuse treatment program – a requirement for his parole – was “infused with Christian practices.” Miller told prison officials and the court that he is willing to complete a substance abuse program “so long as it is non-religious in nature.”
Miller enrolled in RSAT upon arriving at SMCC in June 2021, but withdrew after less than a week because it “immediately became apparent … that the program was pervasively religious.”
The RSAT curriculum “relies heavily” on the “Twelve Steps” developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous “and on other religious materials,” the judge noted.
RSAT participants progress through five phases over the course of the program, which lasts at least six months and may continue for 12 months. To progress through each phase, participants must “demonstrate knowledge” of the Twelve Steps and must attend at least 115 AA/NA meetings, which promote the Twelve Steps and involve daily prayer.
Twelve Step programs are “explicitly hostile toward atheists, agnostics and the nonreligious,” Miller argued.
The AA “Big Book” contains a chapter that “tells atheists and agnostics they are ‘doomed to an alcoholic death’ unless they ‘seek Him.’” The chapter “goes on to deride the nonreligious as ‘handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice,’” the judge related.
Reading materials in the RSAT unit refer to God numerous times, “were often theistic in nature, … almost always expressed a specifically Christian belief” and no viewpoints other than Christianity are represented.
Miller complained repeatedly about the religious nature of the RSAT program and asked that it be removed from his Individual Re-entry Program Plan or that secular accommodations be provided, and he filed numerous grievances. In every instance he was rebuffed, evidence showed.
Miller asserted that failure to provide him with a secular alternative to the numerous religious elements of the RSAT program “furthers no compelling government interest…”
Because the “pervasively religious elements of the RSAT program” are a “necessary condition for parole eligibility,” the defendants used the “coercive power of the state” to compel Miller to engage in religion in violation of the Establishment Clause, Goodwin declared.
The U.S. Constitution “guarantees that government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise, or otherwise act in a way which ‘establishes a state religion or religious faith, or tends to do so,’” the judge wrote.
The defendants correctly pointed out that “parole itself is not a constitutional right.” However, once a state establishes a system of parole, an inmate “does have the right to be free from unconstitutional burdens when availing himself of existing ways to access the benefit of early parole,” a federal court ruled previously.
Accordingly, Goodwin granted Miller’s application for a temporary injunction. The judge also ordered West Virginia’s Corrections Department to remove the RSAT program from Miller’s Individual Re-entry Program Plan “and to ensure that participation in or completion of the RSAT program is not considered a factor in his eligibility for parole.”