By: David Hellerman
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked a lower court’s order that would have forced Yeshiva University to grant official recognition to a student LGBTQ group.
The order, signed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, temporarily freezes a New York Appeals Court ruling “pending further order,” suggesting that the Supreme Court may hear the case.
University officials had filed an emergency appeal with the High Court after Manhattan-based Judge Lynn Kotler ruled in June that the administration must grant the same recognition to the “YU Pride Alliance” as other student groups.
YU maintains that recognizing the Pride Alliance violates its religious beliefs while the student group accuses the administration of discrimination.
The university argues that its nonsectarian status – vital to receiving government funding – was solely determined by its admissions procedure, which does not discriminate between students based on faith, color, or sex.
While a large majority of its students is Jewish, it is not a requirement and non-Jewish students do attend the school. More than 6,000 students are enrolled in classes at YU’s four campuses across New York City.
However, although not a “religious corporation,” the university showed numerous examples of how it has always operated as a religious entity “guided by Halacha [Jewish law] and Torah values.” These guidelines should allow it to be exempt from the law based on the Constitutionally-enshrined right to religious freedom, it told the court.
The Supreme Court has shifted its stance on religious freedom in recent months.
In June, justices struck down a Maine law that prevented state funds from going to religious schools.
In other cases this year, the High Court ruled that a high school football coach had the constitutional right to pray at midfield following games and that a pastor could “lay hands” on a condemned prisoner in the final moments before his execution.
In an article that appeared on the JNS.org web site entitled, “Why Yeshiva University has a First Amendment right to deny official status to an LGBTQ student group” renowned attorney Nat Lewin wrote:
“Yeshiva’s legal argument is straightforward: New York’s law against gender discrimination may not force an institution committed to religious values to issue a stamp of approval for conduct that violates the institution’s religious commands. Local law cannot override the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. That constitutional claim surely has enough substance that a New York court should have delayed the implementation of Kotler’s order while Yeshiva pursues its appeal.”
He added that, “Yeshiva’s claim extends beyond protecting religious doctrine. May a court direct any private university, whether or not it is guided by religious precept, to confirm and grant official status to ideologies or practices that offend values fundamental to the university? Supreme Court decisions protecting free speech—entirely apart from religious principles—have recognized a private organization’s right to exclude speakers whose message offends the organization’s values.
In 1995, a unanimous Supreme Court declared that the organizers of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston had the constitutional free-speech right to exclude the Irish-American, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group from its parade. Justice Souter, a liberal icon, said in the court’s opinion that the parade organizers had the right “to determine what message their activities convey to the public.” Free speech includes, he said, the right “to propound a particular point of view and that choice is presumed to be beyond the government’s power to control.”
The free-speech right was extended in 2000 in a Supreme Court decision affirming the right of the Boy Scouts of America to discharge an openly gay scout leader. A court majority noted that the Scouts transmitted to the public an “expressive message” secured by the First Amendment.
(WIN & JNS.org)
