DOJ: OK to fund discriminatory programs

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bush administration says it is legally free to give taxpayer funds to religious groups that discriminate against non-believers in their hiring.

The legal opinion on funding of faith-based organizations was issued last year by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and was quietly posted on the department's Web site last week, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The administration had previously allowed some government grants to Christian programs that hire only people of that religion, but the new opinion goes further, concluding that even money subject to federal anti-discrimination laws can be awarded to such faith-based groups, the newspaper said.

It reasons that such restrictions could be bypassed because of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which in some cases permits exceptions to a federal law if obeying it would impose a "substantial burden" on people's ability to freely exercise their religion, the Times said.

Some legal experts, however, say the administration's interpretation of the law is flawed. Ira Lupu, a co-director of the Project on Law and Religious Institutions at George Washington University Law School, said the Justice Department opinion's reasoning was "a very big stretch."