Chapter 22 - § 22.5 • BONDS FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 22.5 • BONDS FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

Issuing qualified § 501(c)(3) bonds for the benefit of religious institutions raises issues under both the federal and Colorado constitutions because of the appearance that a governmental entity is giving aid or governmental funds to a sectarian institution. See Martha Ratnoff Fleisher, "Establishing Bonds Between Church and State: The Issuance of Tax-Exempt Bonds for Religious Institutions," 2 First Amend. L. Rev. 199 (2004); U.S. Const. amend. I; Colo. Const. art. II, § 4; Americans United for Separation of Church & State Fund, Inc. v. State, 648 P.2d 1072, 1081-82 (Colo. 1982) ("[a]lthough the provisions of Article II, Section 4 [of the Colorado Constitution] are considerably more specific than the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, we read them to embody the same values of . . . governmental non-involvement secured by the religious clauses of the First Amendment."). Cases litigated under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution challenging the issuance of tax-exempt bonds for the benefit of sectarian institutions on the grounds that the issuance is violative of the Establishment Clause have applied the standards set forth by the Supreme Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman. Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S. 734, 741 (1973) (". . . the principles which govern our consideration of challenges to statutes as violative of the Establishment Clause are three: First, the statute must have a secular...