By Derek Redd, The Weirton Daily Times
WHEELING, W.Va. — 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 included using $750,000 of that $5 million to create the Center for the Common Good to support “life-affirming policy in West Virginia.”