The Freedom From Religion Foundation is decrying a recent memorandum from the Florida attorney general that announces a refusal to enforce the Florida Constitution’s clear prohibition on public funding of religion.

In an April 2 memo, Attorney General James Uthmeier declared that his office will not enforce Article I, Section 3, of the Florida Constitution, which explicitly states that no public funds “shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination.” FFRF has sent a formal letter to Uthmeier demanding that he reverse course and fulfill his duty to uphold Florida law. The state/church watchdog is calling the memo a breathtaking abuse of office and warning that it represents a direct attack on both the rule of law and religious freedom.

“Attorney General Uthmeier does not get to pick and choose which parts of the Florida Constitution he feels like enforcing,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “His refusal to uphold this clear constitutional provision is not only legally baseless, but also a dereliction of duty.”

FFRF notes that Florida’s no-aid clause reflects the will of the state’s citizens in making certain that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund religious institutions. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires states to subsidize religion — and longstanding constitutional principles allow states to adopt stronger protections for church-state separation.

This is not an isolated incident. FFRF has previously criticized Uthmeier for a series of misleading and unconstitutional actions in which he falsely accused private companies, professional organizations and local governments of “anti-Christian discrimination.” In November, he targeted entities including Microsoft, the American Bar Association and the city of Pensacola, advancing similarly baseless claims that collapse under even basic constitutional scrutiny.

“Florida is not a Christian state, and the United States is not a Christian nation,” FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line told a reporter for USA Today at the time. “These actions are completely inappropriate. They show the attorney general is willing to use government authority to advance a narrow form of Christianity.”

FFRF is also criticizing Uthmeier’s recent memo for advancing a distorted and historically inaccurate view of the First Amendment, including claims that the government may “encourage” Christianity and that Christianity occupies a privileged place in the nation’s constitutional order.

“That is flatly wrong,” says Gaylor. “The First Amendment forbids the government from favoring religion over nonreligion or privileging one faith over another. Suggesting otherwise is not constitutional interpretation — it’s Christian nationalism.”

FFRF is additionally cautioning that Uthmeier’s attempt to justify directing taxpayer funds to religious charter schools fundamentally misrepresents recent Supreme Court decisions. Cases such as Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin do not require states to fund religious instruction or dismantle constitutional safeguards against government support of religion.

“Public schools are not private grant programs,” Gaylor says. “They are government entities, and they must remain secular.”

FFRF emphasizes this point in its letter.

“Floridians of all faiths and none deserve a government that respects both religious freedom and constitutional limits.,” Line writes. “That requires keeping public funds for public purposes and out of the collection plate.”

FFRF is calling on Uthmeier to resign if he is unwilling to carry out his constitutional obligations.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 41,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida, Central Florida Freethought Community. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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