Cameron Johnson, et al. v. A. Scott Fleming, Director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, et al.

Petitioners Cameron Johnson, Luke Thomas, and Trace Stevens are Virginia residents eligible for grants funding study at private colleges in the Commonwealth. Virginia funds some religious degrees at Liberty University—the private college that Petitioners attend—but denies funding for Petitioners’ chosen religious degrees. Yet the favored and disfavored degrees are materially indistinguishable—they include similar religious courses and lead to both secular and religious careers. This results in arbitrary exclusions, state religiosity standards, and the indignity of unequal treatment because of one’s faith. This religious discrimination violates the First Amendment. But the district court dismissed Cameron’s and Luke’s claims and denied Trace a preliminary injunction based on Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), holding that Locke bars any First Amendment challenge to any educational grant program that excludes some religious degrees, in conflict with a ruling by the Tenth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit then denied an injunction pending appeal and deferred a motion to accelerate, extending Petitioners’ ongoing and irreparable harm. Excluding students based on their religious use of public benefits raises two issues of broad significance:

1. Whether the Religion Clauses allow governments to exclude some religious degrees while funding similar religious degrees in educational grant programs.

2. Whether this Court should overrule Locke.