Hastings College of Law Wins Anti-Discrimination Suit

Posted by Myrna the Minx on April 20, 2006 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

University of California’s Hastings College of Law won its dispute against tha campus chapter of the Christian Legal Society which barred students who practiced “unrepetant homosexual conduct from joining. Here is the PDF of the opinion.

Hastings was trying to protect its own policy that prevents officially recognized student groups from discriminating on the basis of religion and sexual orientation, among other factors.

Many colleges are universities around the country are breathing a sigh of relief over this ruling. There has been constant pressure from groups like the Christina Legal Society to discriminate against students for reasons of sexual orientation. Consider the recent case at the Georgia Institute of Technology brought be the oh so tolerant student Ruth Malhotra, who wants the to freedom bash gays whenever she feels like it. Read David Neiwert’s analysis of why this legal argument doesn’t make sense here. The Hastings ruling allows institutions to feel more confident in enforcing their anti-discrimination policies that apply to all–that’s right–gays have to let the Christians into their group if they want to join. From the Inside Higher Ed article:

In the last two years, Christian and conservative legal groups have — with some success — been pushing public colleges that have policies like the one in place at Hastings to make exceptions for religious groups. Suits have been threatened and several colleges have backed away from their rules (sometimes quietly) to avoid litigation. In one previous case that has gone to court, a preliminary ruling suggested that the Christian student groups would prevail. Tuesday’s ruling, however, accepted a legal argument that the Christian students’ rights to freedom of religion and expression were not compromised by the Hastings rule.

Ethan P. Schulman, a San Francisco lawyer who represented Hastings in the case, said that the victory showed that colleges need not abandon their policies. “Hastings fought this case from the belief that discriminating student groups have no place on campus. Student groups should not be able to use religion as a pretext for discrimination,” Schulman said.

Schulman added that conservatives who love to bash rulings that come from California jurists should note that the judge who issued the ruling, Jeffrey S. White, was appointed to the bench by President Bush.

Did you get that Delay? There’s another Bush appointee who followed his heart and the law. You better run him off the bench, and fast.

The TaxProfessor has the story too…