WASHINGTON — A church-state separationist group has filed suit to try to halt a new law calling for the distribution of taxpayer funds for the historical preservation of California mission churches.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based watchdog group, filed the suit Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, two days after President Bush signed the California Missions Preservation Act into law.
The act authorizes the secretary of the interior to provide up to $10 million in financial assistance over a five-year period to the California Missions Foundation to restore and repair 21 Spanish colonial missions in the state. Americans United lawyers have asked the court to declare the act unconstitutional because they believe it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
“Houses of worship must be maintained by their members, not the federal government,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of the watchdog group, in a statement.
Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray said providing funds to historic religious sites is part of the work of the federal government, which has funded such buildings as Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the late Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Boston’s Old North Church, which played a role in American independence.
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