Supreme Court to hear school bias case

University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco five years ago told the Christian Legal Society that, UPI reported, it was no longer an officially recognized school group because it has rules that in effect prevent gays and lesbians from being officers or voting members.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the group's case that the U.S. Constitution does not allow a school to deny recognition to a religious student group because it requires its members to agree with its core views.

Don Byrd at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty writes that the 9th Circuit affirmed the trial court's ruling in favor of the University. Judge Jeffrey White concluded (pdf):

Hastings has not excluded CLS because it is a religious group but rather because it refuses to comply with the prerequisites imposed on all student organizations. To become a registered student group, Hastings requires all student groups to comply with Hastings’ Policies and Regulations Applying to College Activities, including the Nondiscrimination Policy. Pursuant to the Nondiscrimination Policy, a student organization cannot exclude interested students from participating on the basis of, among other things, religion or sexual orientation. The student groups must remain open to all students who want to join or participate.

Courts have found nondiscrimination statutes akin to Hastings’ Nondiscrimination Policy to be viewpoint neutral.