Judge rejects motion to dismiss lawsuit blocking Catholic trade school from setting up shop

A student workshop at The College of St. Joseph the Worker. / Credit: College of St. Joseph the Worker

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A lawsuit that seeks to block West Virginia from offering a Catholic trade college a $5 million grant will move forward after a judge rejected the college’s motion for a dismissal last week.

The lawsuit, filed by the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the American Humanist Association (AHA), is asking a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge to block the grant awarded to St. Joseph the Worker College.

The College of St. Joseph the Worker, based in Steubenville, Ohio, teaches trades related to construction — carpentry, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing — combined with a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies. The school intends to use the grant money to create a nonprofit construction company in West Virginia and expand its job training and education programs into the state.

The West Virginia ACLU contends in its lawsuit that taxpayer money should not be spent to support a grant to a religiously affiliated college. The lawsuit was filed against the West Virginia Water Development Authority (WVDA), which is the government body that approved the grant for economic development purposes. The college is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

“Our case challenging a $5 million grant in water development funds to a ‘radically Catholic’ school in Ohio can move forward,” the West Virginia ACLU announced in a statement posted on Bluesky.

“Thousands in West Virginia lack clean water,” the statement read. “Forcing them to fund this school’s religious mission with money meant for infrastructure is wholly inappropriate.”

Both the nonprofit construction company and the additional training programs the college wants to establish would be located in Weirton, West Virginia, once a booming steel town. The city sits in the northern tip of the state and borders Ohio, where the college is primarily based.

The proposed construction company would employ students and focus on revitalization projects for sites of historical or cultural significance that for-profit companies would likely pass on.

As part of the grant funding agreement, St. Joseph the Worker would recruit students from West Virginia and develop partnerships with West Virginia-based tradesmen and contractors to help place students in jobs located in the state after graduation.

A spokesperson for St. Joseph the Worker did not respond to a request for comment. 

In January, when the ACLU first filed its lawsuit, a spokesperson for the WVDA told CNA it “will not comment to the media” about the lawsuit but that all comments “will be made in public court filings.”