Can a public law school exclude a Christian student group from recognition because the group’s rules forbid gays and non-Christians as members in violation of the school’s anti-discrimination code?
The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh constitutional questions around universities and religious rights when it hears arguments next Monday (April 19) in a case centered on the University of California’s law school in San Francisco.
The case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, pits a campus chapter of a Christian legal group against the Hastings College of the Law and its 20-year-old nondiscrimination policy.
“Our main argument is that Christian student groups shouldn’t be forced to deny their faith in order to receive equal treatment on campus,” said Gregory Baylor, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is helping represent the CLS chapter before the high court.
Don’t be fooled, nondiscrimination laws are designed to compel/force a certain behavior or course of conduct. There is nothing benign about these laws. It is about the state telling you what to do.