From the San Francisco Chronicle:
SAN FRANCISCO — UC Hastings College of the Law can deny recognition and funding to a Christian student group because it excludes gays, lesbians and non-Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The San Francisco law school is entitled to require official student organizations to “accept all comers as members, even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group,” the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled. It said the school’s policy is “viewpoint-neutral” and does not violate the rights of the Christian Legal Society.
This has been a longstanding dispute, pushed by the Alliance Defense Fund, to force schools to fund student organizations that openly discriminate — primarily on the basis of sexual orientation. The matter embroiled Ohio State University Moritz College of Law during my time there, with the University eventually giving in to the group’s legal intimidation by altering the school’s nondiscrimination policy for student groups so that groups were permitted to discriminate if doing so was done based on their religious beliefs.
I’ll have more once I read the opinion (which I cannot find). Anyone? Thanks to San Francisco Chronicle reporter Bob Egelko, I learned the opinion was issued as a brief memorandum opinion, which I produce in its entirety below the jump.
* * *
Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, HUG and BEA, Circuit Judges.
The parties stipulate that Hastings imposes an open membership rule on all
student groups—all groups must accept all comers as voting members even if those
individuals disagree with the mission of the group. The conditions on recognition
are therefore viewpoint neutral and reasonable. Truth v. Kent Sch. Dist., 542 F.3d
634, 649–50 (9th Cir. 2008).
AFFIRMED.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
This CLS chapter’s policy was an overreach — I expect they’ll soon bring it in line with the policies at other CLS chapters, which is to accept all students as members, but to condition leadership upon acceptance of a certain code of belief and conduct, one part of which will include same-sex relationships and sexual activity.
The policy of national CLS when I was in law school was that you could attend events but not be a voting member or be in the leadership if you couldn’t state that you adhered to their principles.