Ethics

9th Circuit Upholds Rule Against Christian Student Groups

By Ed Brayton

The 9th circuit court of appeals has upheld anti-discrimination rules at Hastings Law School that effectively make it impossible to form any student organization on the basis of religion. The case is Christian Legal Society v Hastings School of Law; full ruling here. This conflicts with the ruling in a nearly identical case in the 7th circuit involving Southern Illinois University, a conflict that will eventually have to be settled by the Supreme Court.

I strongly disagree with this ruling. There is a clear conflict between the legal theory at work in this and similar cases and the legal theory in various open forum cases like Lamb's Chapel and Rosenberger. Those cases require that if a school establishes an open forum by allowing the formation of student organizations, it cannot prevent the formation of religious groups or treat them differently from non-religious groups.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).