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Discrimination Ruling
By Gwendolyn Bradley
The University of California’s Hastings College of Law can deny funding and official recognition to a Christian student group that refuses membership to gays and non-Christians, a federal district court judge ruled in April. The Hastings chapter of the Christian Legal Society had been a recognized student organization open to all students and eligible for funding, office space, and inclusion in official publications until 2004, when it began requiring members to endorse a statement of faith and barring from membership anyone who engaged in “unrepentant homosexual conduct.” Because these actions violated Hastings’s antidiscrimination policies, the institution then withdrew official recognition from the group, though it was still allowed to meet on campus.
The Christian Legal Society argued that the institution’s refusal to allow the group to use student activity funds, the school name, and some school facilities violated freedom of speech, religion, and association. But the judge said that Hastings was regulating conduct, not speech.
The ruling was the first in a series of similar suits by the Christian Legal Society and affiliated groups challenging nondiscrimination policies at public universities around the country. The ruling may be appealed.
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