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U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland said the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and five North Dakota taxpayers who are members of the group have no right to sue.
Hovland’s ruling does not address the plaintiffs’ contention that referrals to the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch are unconstitutional because they use public money to indoctrinate children with religion. The judge ruled only on the technical issue of whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to sue.
“The payment of taxes is generally not enough to establish standing to challenge an action by the state or county government,” the judge said, though he also said the case raised difficult questions on the issue of standing.
Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said in a statement that the group was considering its options, including appealing or suing on behalf of some children at the Boys and Girls Ranch. It has facilities in Bismarck, Fargo and Minot.
“The government should not be sentencing juveniles to a religious treatment program, and taxpayers should not be footing the bill to indoctrinate children or punish children who object to such indoctrination,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, another foundation co-president.
The foundation first sued in federal court in Bismarck in June 2007. The lawsuit — which grew in the numbers of both defendants and plaintiffs — asked Hovland to declare a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, and to order the government to stop sending children or money to the ranch.
The Boys and Girls Ranch, which is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said it receives state funds but that its spiritual component is funded entirely with private money.
The foundation countered that even if the Boys and Girls Ranch can keep public and private money separate, public money frees up more private money for religious purposes.
Assistant Attorney General Douglas Bahr, who defended state Human Services Director Carol Olson, state school Superintendent Wayne Sanstead and state Juvenile Services Director Lisa Bjergaard, asked Hovland late last year to dismiss the case. Bahr said the foundation could challenge only specific legislative appropriations and not government officials’ use of money on constitutional grounds.
The foundation argued that the North Dakota Legislature authorizes social welfare programs, and that the “unconstitutional administration” of those programs could be challenged.
Hovland said in his ruling that “taxpayers do not generally have standing to challenge how tax dollars lawfully collected from them are used by the government.”
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said he was pleased Hovland accepted the state’s argument on the standing issue. But even had the case gone to trial on its merits, “we were still convinced we would have prevailed,” he said.
Minot attorney Bryan Van Grinsven, who represented two county defendants — Ward County Social Services Director Daniel Richter and Pierce County Social Services Director Mary Hermanson — also had asked Hovland to dismiss the case, independent of Bahr’s request.
“Our position was that this was really a challenge to the state system, and we (the county officials) are required to operate within that,” Van Grinsven said Thursday. “We were very satisfied with the ruling.”
Hovland’s decision said the lawsuit “is essentially an attack on the state-directed system of child placement and treatment and it should be analyzed in those terms.”
