By Staff Report
Florida will not enforce a provision of its constitution that bars public funds from going to religious institutions, Attorney General James Uthmeier said Thursday.
Uthmeier, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February 2025, issued a legal opinion declaring the state constitution’s ban on funding for religious institutions violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion.
The move could open the door to 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 said in a video posted on X.
Uthmeier’s opinion argues the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause applies only to the federal government and does not impose the same restrictions on states.
“(The Establishment Clause) did not impose the same restriction on the states. In fact, many states at the Framing had established churches,” Uthmeier wrote.
He also argued the First Amendment does not bar states from encouraging religion, including Christianity.
“It is clear, then, that the First Amendment did not displace Christianity as the center of the nation’s religious identity,” Uthmeier wrote, citing Joseph Story’s 1833 book “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.”
The opinion further states that while atheists are protected in their beliefs, actions derived from nonbelief are not “privileged” in the same way as those tied to religious faith.
The interpretation could allow charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently run — to have religious affiliations and could permit state scholarship programs to fund students attending Christian colleges.
Uthmeier’s letter points to the Effective Access to Student Education grant program, which provides scholarships to private nonprofit colleges but currently excludes religious institutions under state law.
Florida statutes governing charter schools also require them to be nonreligious.
“This blanket exclusion of all religious entities violates the First Amendment,” Uthmeier wrote.
However, a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court last year effectively upheld an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision rejecting the creation of a Catholic charter school. The high court split 4-4 on the case, as Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.
Ali Moreland 
AMBER PATINO