CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County judge ruled Thursday that the West Virginia Water Development Authority’s $5 million grant to an Ohio-based Catholic trade school for program expansion into the state is constitutional after it was able to show the funding was not going to religious programs.

Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay issued an order Thursday afternoon granting summary judgement to the Water Development Authority (WDA), dismissing the lawsuit after the authority was able to demonstrate that its grant award to the College of St. Joseph the Worker was being used only for economic development and not for religious education of advocacy.

“(The WDA) produced to this Court an amended invoice from the College stating that the grant will be used only for the purposes of ‘r

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