Overview

• U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel on Friday invalidated a 2023 law that excluded colleges requiring statements of faith from Minnesota’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program.
• The court held the Faith Statement Ban unconstitutional on its face under the Free Exercise Clause and also under Minnesota’s Freedom of Conscience provision.
• Brasel found the amendment’s nondiscrimination requirement inseverable from the faith-statement provision, ordering the entire amendment stricken.
• The Minnesota Department of Education’s counterclaims against the University of Northwestern–St. Paul and Crown College were dismissed, and the agency did not immediately comment.
• The colleges and several parents had sued in 2023; an earlier injunction kept the schools in PSEO, which funds nonsectarian coursework and reimbursed Northwestern about $33.2 million and Crown about $5.8 million from 2017–18 through 2022–23.