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The Iowa Department of Administration has agreed to include religious charities in a list of organizations eligible to receive donations from a giving system for state employees.
The rules of the Iowa One Gift program, which allows state employees to make charitable donations through payroll deduction, had prohibited workers from contributing to an organization that "engages in any way in sectarian activities," advocates “religious viewpoints," or "discriminates” on the basis of religion in employment.
In March, the Association of Faith-Based Organizations (AFBO) filed suit, alleging the restrictions discriminated against faith-based charities.
Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund, representing AFBO in the case, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa but decided not to serve formal papers to state officials. Instead the attorneys sent a courtesy copy to state officials with a letter requesting that they correct the unconstitutional policy.
The department has now changed the rules excluding "sectarian" and "religious" charities. State employees can use the giving system to donate to faith-based charities.
As a result of the department's rule changes, the Sioux City Gospel Mission, an AFBO member, is now eligible as a participating charity in the Iowa One Gift program.
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"Religious charities providing critical social services should not be discriminated against simply because they practice their religious beliefs and hire persons who share them. They are equally worthy of voluntary contributions, and no one is compelled to give to them," said M. Casey Mattox, an attorney with CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom.
State officials have also amended its nondiscrimination rule to only require employment practices to comply with Iowa employment law, which includes an exemption for the faith-based hiring policies of religious employers.
Lawyers for AFBO have dropped the lawsuit following the department's decision.
"While it is disappointing that legal action was even necessary to address this clear constitutional violation, we applaud the state for eventually getting it right and amending its rules to respect religious freedom," stated Mattox.
The case was the fourth lawsuit filed by CLS and ADF on behalf of AFBO challenging rules in state giving programs that excluded religious charities. The organization won similar legal challenges in Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan.
