The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia has filed a lawsuit asking a court to stop the West Virginia Water Development Authority from giving a $5 million grant to a Catholic college based in Steubenville, Ohio.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the American Humanist Association against the WDA and its executive director Marie Prezioso and filed Monday afternoon in Kanawha County Circuit Court. It claims that the WDA awarding the grant to the College of St. Joseph the Worker violates “the Guarantee of Freedom of Religion codified in the West Virginia Constitution.”

In October, the college received a $5 million Economic Enhancement Grant Fund from the WDA. According to the college’s grant proposal, it will use the funds to create a Weirton-based construction and real estate company for training apprentices, provide scholarships for the recruitment of West Virginia students and training facilities near Weirton, and create a branch campus in the Kanawha/Putnam County region.

The college’s proposal also included using $750,000 of that $5 million to create the “Center for the Common Good” to support “life-affirming policy in West Virginia.” The center would be a conservative public policy think tank, focusing on, among other things, abortion and immigration and border policies. The WDA later said that provisions in the grant agreement signed by the college prevent it from using it for anything other than workforce training.

Students who enroll at the College of St. Joseph the Worker will earn a bachelor of arts degree in Catholic studies, and receive training in multiple trades, including carpentry, HVAC, plumbing and electrical.

The ACLU-WV said Monday that West Virginians should not have to fund the college through their tax dollars.

“Tens of thousands of West Virginians wonder every day where they will get clean drinking water,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said in a Monday afternoon release. “The College of Saint Joseph the Worker has every right to exist and to educate its students in line with its religious worldview, but to force the taxpayers of West Virginia to fund its mission is wholly inappropriate and unconstitutional.”

The suit also mentions that the grant application did not identify which state cabinet secretary issued the recommendation necessary for the application to be approved. West Virginia Code states that EEGF funds can be used when “recommended by the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Economic Development and/or the Secretary of Tourism.”

Both the WDA and the office of then-Gov. Jim Justice confirmed that no such written recommendation from a cabinet secretary was submitted for the College’s EEGF request. They said there was a verbal commitment from the Department of Economic Development to provide a written recommendation later.

“Despite the deficiencies in the school’s application and its manifest, explicit religious purpose, the College of St. Joseph the Worker was awarded a grant by the Defendants which would allow them to expand their work, which they state is inherently and innately tied with their Catholic education, mission, and ministry,” the lawsuit claims.

“Humanists believe deeply in the freedom of conscience, and this attempt to force West Virginia

taxpayers to fund religious activity is an offense against the Constitution and common sense,” American Humanist Association President Fish Stark said in the news release. “As a former West Virginia resident, I believe ‘Mountaineers Are Always Free’ means your faith is your business – no one else, and certainly not the government, has the right to push it on you.”

The case has been assigned to Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay. Officials from The College of St. Joseph the Worker could not be reached for comment as of Monday evening.