On July 31, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to the Catholic bishops of Florida demanding that Catholic schools grant religious exemptions to vaccine requirements, or risk losing their eligibility for the state's school voucher program. Identifying himself as a Catholic, Uthmeier went further and declared that Catholic schools have no "legitimate religious reason" to refuse.

That's not a legal opinion. It's a government official telling a church how to run its institutions and what counts as valid religious doctrine. That is exactly what the First Amendment forbids.

Rick Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, put it plainly: "It is not remotely the role of a government official, even a Catholic one, to tell the bishops what to teach or how to run the church's apostolates." Garnett called the letter "a glaring and dangerous government overreach" and "a clear violation of the First Amendment."

Uthmeier also misrepresented his sources. His letter cited the National Catholic Bioethics Center to argue that Catholic doctrine requires granting these exemptions. Documents on that organization's website do not support his claim. The Catholic Church's actual position, affirmed by the Vatican and U.S. bishops, is that vaccines are morally permissible. The bishops of Florida did not ask for Uthmeier's interpretation of their faith.

The families who depend on Florida's voucher program to send their children to Catholic schools deserve better than being used as leverage in a dispute a government official has no authority to settle. Threatening to cut off education funding unless a church changes its doctrine is coercion, not law enforcement.

Uthmeier should withdraw the letter and issue a public apology. Sign to demand he does.