CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Australia's highest court said Wednesday that the government exceeded its constitutional powers by paying for chaplains to run programs in public schools.
The High Court ruling is a victory for Ron Williams, whose 6-year-old son came home from Darling Heights State School singing gospel songs in 2010. Williams sued over the program at the school in Toowoomba in Queensland state.
Six of seven High Court judges agreed that the government exceeded its powers by paying Scripture Union Queensland for the school's chaplaincy service.
About 2,700 schools around Australia have similar programs. Attorney-General Nicole Roxon says she is examining the ruling's implications.
The voluntary programs include support and guidance about ethics, values, relationships, spirituality and religious issues. It costs the government about 70 million Australian dollars ($71 million) a year.
The programs were introduced in 2007, when the conservative Liberal Party led the government, but the center-left Labor Party government currently in power had planned to expand it.
"It wasn't appropriate for a Commonwealth Government to fund such an endeavor in public schools," Williams told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "It's outrageous; it was always outrageous."
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