Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to block $5 million state grant to Catholic trade school

CNA Staff, Sep 30, 2025 / 12:56 pm

A West Virginia circuit court judge has tossed out a lawsuit aiming to block a state government agency from providing a $5 million grant to an Ohio Catholic trade school.

Judge Richard Lindsay said in the Sept. 25 ruling that the seven-figure grant from the West Virginia Water Development Authority was constitutional, nixing the effort by the American Humanist Association to block the funds for the College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, which is looking to expand into West Virginia.

Lindsay had blocked the grant in July after the secular humanist group argued in its lawsuit that the state government’s grant would violate Article III of the West Virginia Constitution.

That section forbids the government from using tax funds “for the erec