Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez, Docket No. 08-1371: Supreme Court Case Could be Tricky
The oldest law school in the West, the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, is defending its anti-discrimination policy against charges that it denies religious freedom. The school requires officially recognized student groups to admit any Hastings student who wants to join, but a group of students from the Christian Legal Society disagrees.
The group contends that requiring it to allow homosexual students and nonbelievers into its leadership would be a renunciation of its core beliefs, and that the policy violates the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech, association with like-minded individuals and exercise of religion.
The college argues it’s policy that enforces universal viewpoint-neutrality.” Any group may abide by the school’s viewpoint-neutral open-membership policy and obtain the modest funding and benefits that go along with school recognition, or forgo recognition and do as it wishes,” it said in its brief.
In the end, the high court will need to decide between allowing the university liberty in setting its funding/facilities standards and the right of religious groups who receive that funding to select members based on their stated beliefs.
Read the briefs:
