Liberty U students denied state grants for religious studies continue legal battle

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, May 28, 2026

Three Virginia students who were denied grants to pay for their higher education because they were pursuing religious studies programs at Liberty University are continuing their legal battle after a lower court ruled against them.

The conservative nonprofit legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom filed an appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday of a lower court ruling rejecting the case of students who alleged Virginia discriminated against them by excluding them from the widely available Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program and the Virginia National Guard State Tuition Assistance Program.

Cameron Johnson, Luke Thomas and Trace Stevens first filed the lawsuit against the leadership of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, along with the leadership of the Virginia Department of Military Affairs and the adjutant general of Virginia, last year.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, Johnson and Thomas were high school seniors seeking grants to pursue religious studies at Liberty University, a Christian institution based in Lynchburg, but were denied because the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia does not provide grants for religious courses of study.

Stevens, who was already a student at Liberty at the time the lawsuit was filed, was denied a grant from the National Guard Tuition Assistance Program because he was pursuing “religious training or theological education.”

Judge Roderick Young of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction in a March 31 decision.

Young ruled that the request for a preliminary injunction was moot because it sought to prohibit the defendants from denying the plaintiffs grants for summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026. By the time of his decision, all three semesters had either passed in full or in part.

Young also dismissed all claims against the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and determined the plaintiffs were unlikely to prove that their rights under the Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, along with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, had been violated.

“Policies that treat religious students as second-class citizens have no place in our laws," ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch said in a statement. “The First Amendment prohibits the government from excluding students from otherwise available grants solely because they picked religious programs that they believe God called them to pursue. We are urging the court to allow students in Virginia to pursue their educational goals without fear of being punished for their religion.”

Insisting that “Virginia’s grant programs blatantly violate the First Amendment,” the opening brief submitted to the federal appellate court Tuesday alleged that “The Commonwealth has already denied Cameron, Luke, and Trace thousands of dollars in grants based solely on their religious exercise.”

According to the court filing, “An injunction is needed to prevent further irreparable harm while this case proceeds … . A few thousand dollars is life-changing for students. But it’s of no consequence to Virginia, which pours millions into [its grant programs] each year.”