[SOURCE]
You can spin anything if you want.
The High Court of Australia today ruled that the National Chaplaincy Program1was unconstitutional2 The way it’s funded that is. The judges had no problems with the concept of the chaplains not being officers of the Commonwealth, so there is no religious test for them to undertake.  But make no mistake. The program is in breach of the Australian Constitution, therefore it’s unconstitutional.
The Australian Chruntian Lobby (remember, the hr in Chruntian is silent) are all excited and make this bold declaration:
Chaplaincy case decision welcomed
The Australian Christian Lobby welcomed the High Court decision that the Chaplaincy Programme is constitutional.
It’s great to see that in their headline they welcome the decision that the program is in breach of the constitution and should be stopped. I welcome that decision too, even if it means that they need to find a different funding model. Â The next line is just bewildering.
Then I did tweet and got a response from my mate Thommo:
@brucellama um, the Judge declared chaplains are constitutional, just Commonwealth funding for them isn’t.
— Adam Thompson (@AdamDJTbrand) June 20, 2012
@brucellama news.com.au/breaking-news/… … did “not involve any judgment about the merits of public funding of chaplaincy services in schools”.
— Adam Thompson (@AdamDJTbrand) June 20, 2012
@adamdjtbrand You made the claim that it was a declaration! The judges made no such declaration.The chaplaincy program is unconstitutional
— Bruce Llama (@brucellama) June 20, 2012
@brucellama I was quoting what I read in a news headline.
— Adam Thompson (@AdamDJTbrand) June 20, 2012
Poor old Thommo – he’s all excited!
So, nothing really changes. Â Church types will continue to send their minions into schools under the vague notion that children wanting counselling from a minister are unable to make it too a church.
It’s a pity chaplains weren’t ruled as unconstitutional, if they had we may have been able to send them all to New Zealand or England.