Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of University Control Of Leadership In Christian Groups

ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND / CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY NEWS RELEASE  

June 28, 2010 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS:  (480) 444-0020 or www.adfmedia.org/home/contact 

Supreme Court: Calif. university’s policy upheld, 

but school still barred from targeting Christian group 

CLS, ADF attorneys:  Conflict continues between First Amendment 

and nondiscrimination policies 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 Monday to uphold an unusual 

university policy that forces student groups to allow outsiders who disagree with their beliefs to 

become leaders and voting members.  The court confined its opinion to the unique policy and did 

not address whether nondiscrimination policies in general, which are typical on public university 

campuses, may require this.   The court concluded that public universities may override a 

religious student group’s right to determine its leadership only if it denies that right to all student 

groups. 

Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund represented a student 

chapter of CLS at California’s Hastings College of the Law in the lawsuit, Christian Legal 

Society v. Martinez.  The suit was filed in 2004 after the law school refused to recognize the 

chapter because the group requires all of its officers and voting members to agree with its basic 

Christian beliefs. 

“All college students, including religious students, should have the right to form groups around 

shared beliefs without being banished from campus,” said Kim Colby, senior counsel at the CLS 

Center for Law & Religious Freedom.  “Today’s ruling, however, will have limited impact.  We 

are not aware of any other public university that has the exact same policy as Hastings.” 

“The conflict still exists.  This decision doesn’t settle the core constitutional issue of whether 

nondiscrimination policies in general can force religious student groups to allow non-believers to 

lead their groups,” explained ADF Senior Legal Counsel Gregory S. Baylor.  “Long-term, the 

decision puts other student groups across the country at risk, and we will continue to fight for 

their constitutional rights.  The Hastings policy actually requires CLS to allow atheists to lead its 

Bible studies and the College Democrats to accept the election of Republican officers in order 

for the groups to be recognized on campus.  We agree with Justice Alito in his dissent that the 

court should have rejected this as absurd.” 

The law school’s acting dean went so far as to state in a PBS interview in April that a black 

student organization must admit white supremacists. 

“We believe we will ultimately prevail in this case,” McConnell said.  “The record will show that 

Hastings law school applied its policy in a discriminatory way--excluding CLS from campus but 

not other groups who limit leadership and voting membership in a similar way.  The Supreme 

Court did not rule that public universities can apply different rules to religious groups than they 

apply to political, cultural, or other student groups.” 

In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Brushing aside inconvenient precedent, the Court 

arms public educational institutions with a handy weapon for suppressing the speech of 

unpopular groups….  I can only hope that this decision will turn out to be an aberration.” 

Twenty-two friend-of-the-court briefs from a broad and diverse array of nearly 100 parties were 

filed with the Supreme Court in support of the CLS chapter, including a brief filed by 14 state 

attorneys general.  Lead counsel Michael W. McConnell, director of the Constitutional Law 

Center at Stanford Law School and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, argued before the 

court on April 19 on behalf of the CLS chapter. 

• Christian Legal Society information page on the case 

• CLS Senior Counsel Kim Colby:  kcolby@clsnet.org or (703) 894-1087 

The ADF Center for Academic Freedom defends religious freedom at America’s public 

universities.  ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations 

defending the right of people to freely live out their faith.  The CLS Center for Law & Religious 

Freedom is the advocacy division of the Christian Legal Society, a nationwide association of 

Christian attorneys, law students, law professors, and judges. 

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