TALLAHASSEE --- Florida won’t enforce a plank of its constitution barring public funds from going to religious institutions, Attorney General James Uthmeier stated Thursday.
Uthmeier, who was appointed to the Cabinet position by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February 2025, issued an unprompted legal opinion declaring the state constitution’s ban on funding for religious institutions to violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion.
The move opens the door to the possibility of religious charter schools and state-funded scholarships for religious universities.
“Unfortunately, some Florida laws prohibit religious schools from accessing public funds. That’s why during this Holy Week I issued a formal legal opinion concluding those laws are unconstitutional and my office will not enforce them,” Uthmeier stated in a video posted on X.
Moreover, Uthmeier’s legal opinion argues the First Amendment’s clause preventing the establishment of a particular religion only applies to the federal government, and the states are free to impose their own state religion.
“(The Establishment Clause) did not impose the same restriction on the states. In fact, many states at the Framing had established churches,” Uthmeier wrote.
Also, the First Amendment doesn’t bar the states from “encouraging” religion, especially Christianity, Uthmeier asserts.
“It is clear, then, that the First Amendment did not displace Christianity as the center of the nation’s religious identity. At the Framing, ‘the general, if not universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State, so far as such encouragement was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship,’” Uthmeier wrote, citing the 1833 book ‘Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States’ by Joseph Story.
Uthmeier’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause also claims that while atheists are protected in their beliefs, their actions derived from nonbelief aren’t “privileged” in the same way as those who adhere to a religion.
The legal opinion could allow charter schools, which are independently run but receive funding from public school districts, to be religious in nature, and allow a state scholarship program to provide funds for students to attend Christian colleges.
Uthmeier’s letter cites the Effective Access to Student Education grant program, which provides scholarships to private nonprofit colleges. Under state law, religious colleges can’t receive EASE grants.
Florida statutes creating the charter school framework also require those schools to be nonreligious.
“This blanket exclusion of all religious entities also violates the First Amendment,” Uthmeier wrote.
