Liberty University Ministry Student Denied Chance at State Grant

A Christian university student won’t get a second chance to sue a Virginia educational program for making students majoring in professional religious studies ineligible for tuition assistance, a federal appeals court said.

A 2004 US Supreme Court decision allowing a university to refrain from funding students majoring in devotional theology barred Bethany Hall’s First Amendment free-exercise clause claim against the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday in a unanimous opinion.

Locke v. Davey is perfectly analogous to Hall’s case, and the high court in the interim hasn’t directly ...