In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a christian student group receiving funding from a university cannot violate that university's non-discrimination policy and must allow gay students to join. The court ruled that Hastings College's policy does extend to student groups and does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Huffington Post reports:
WASHINGTON — An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group's "discriminatory practices."
The court turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" as being inconsistent with that faith.
The court on a 5-4 judgment upheld the lower court rulings saying the Christian group's First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise were not violated by the college's nondiscrimination policy.
"In requiring CLS – in common with all other student organizations – to choose between welcoming all students and forgoing the benefits of official recognition, we hold, Hastings did not transgress constitutional limitations," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote the 5-4 majority opinion for the court's liberals and moderate Anthony Kennedy. "CLS, it bears emphasis, seeks not parity with other organizations, but a preferential exemption from Hastings' policy."Naturally, Virginia's douchebag of an attorney general has weighed on the subject, saying that the 14th amendment does not protect the gays.
Last March Cooch sent a letter to Virginia's state colleges and universities stating that employment non-discrimination policies that included sexual orientation as a protected status where not legal in the commonwealth and must be stricken. The move caused a major uproar on campuses throughout the Old Dominion, with students and faculty tatking to the streets of Richmond in protest.
Not being one to miss an opportunity to show his ass, Cooch also believes he knows the constitution better that the Supreme Court and said so to a group of high school students. Think Progress'
The Wonk Room reports:
On Friday, Cuccinelli appeared at Boys State, where a high-school student asked him, “How is that not a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment?” Cuccinelli responded by suggesting that the amendment was not designed to protect gay people:
“State universities are not free to create any specially protected classes other than those dictated by the General Assembly,” Cuccinelli said. “Your question is, why is that not a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Frankly, the category of sexual orientation would never have been contemplated by the people who wrote and voted for and passed the 14th Amendment,” he said.
“There are judges who think these things ‘evolve,’ is the word they like to use,” Cuccinelli said, but the correct approach to making such a change would be a constitutional amendment, he said.
I really wish Cooch and Gov. McDonnell would share notes on these issues. Earlier this year when McDonnell came under fire for breaking with his predecessors and leaving out sexual orientation as executive order on non-discrimination, "Taliban Bob" said it was unnecessary because the 14th Amendment provided all the protection we need.
This is why we need ENDA!
