Florida judge tosses religious-funding question from 2012 ballot
Another GOP theocrat fail — how many cases like this are taxpayers around the country going to fund before they wise up and toss the theocrat asses out of office?
A Florida judge has stripped a question from the 2012 election ballot that would have deleted the state’s century-old constitutional ban on using taxpayer money “in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
The Republican-run Florida Legislature placed Amendment 7, called the “Religious Freedom Act,” on the ballot last spring. Supporters have argued the change would delete century-old discrimination from Florida government’s formative document.
Critics have called it a back-door attempt to more easily steer taxpayer money to religious schools, institutions and programs. The amendment’s ballot summary states it would ensure “no individual or entity may be denied, on the basis of religious identity or belief, governmental benefits, funding, or other support.”
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled in an order released Wednesday that the summary was misleading, creating the impression that it would “make it a lot harder for the state to deny funding or program benefits to a sectarian institution.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, along with plaintiffs that include: Susan Summers-Persis of Ormond Beach, president of the Florida Association of School Administrators; Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, the Rabbi of Temple Shalom in Deltona; the Rev. Kent Siladi of Rockledge, the Conference Minister for the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ.