Christian Student Group Refused Recognition at N.Y. Law School
Pace Law School in White Plains, N.Y., has rejected a Christian student group’s request for recognition on campus, claiming that its beliefs were too narrow.
The Christian Law Students’ Association (CLSA) already had been refused recognition a year earlier along the lines that they were discriminatory to others’ lifestyles such as homosexuals. Even after the group made alterations to its constitution allowing all students of any kind to attend, the Student Bar Association (SBA) still denied admittance.
The CLSA is now applying for the decision to be reversed, receiving aid from Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a group whose role is “to defend and sustain individual rights at America's increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and universities,” according to FIRE’s website.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Lukianoff was surprised at the decision, considering the big compromise that the Christian group agreed to. He also argued that it is a right for the student group to exclude people who do not share its beliefs, citing that the Republican and Democrat groups on campus should not have to allow people of the opposite party to come to their meetings.
"Now, this is quite remarkable," Lukianoff explained on One News Now. "By any argument, any ideological group can have views that some other group might consider narrow, but it is not the right or privilege of a student association to evaluate the sincerity, importance, or breadth of religious beliefs to decide if they deem them appropriate."
Pace’s rejection of CLSA follows a number of other recent cases where religious organizations have encountered difficulties in receiving official recognition on campus because of their beliefs.
Only a few months ago, a related problem with religious groups occurred at Georgetown University, a Jesuit campus. Due to “restructuring” at the school, six Protestant campus groups were expelled from campus. The protestant chaplain of the university, the Rev. Constance Wheelernoted, noted that such things as Bible studies, mid-week worship, retreats with Georgetown students or helping students move in were no longer permitted.
The involved ministries included Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, Crossroad Campus Christian Fellowship, Georgetown Community Church, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia, and both the graduate and undergraduate InterVarsity Christian Fellowships.
The students continued to meet following the expulsions, although not officially recognized.
The universities are able to make these policies, because they are private universities, giving them legal rights to make these restrictions.
The CLS would not agree with these sanctions though.
“Pace Law School recognizes numerous ideological student organizations, so religious groups should be afforded the same rights,” FIRE’s Lukianoff said. “A public university would be constitutionally bound to recognize the Christian group, and a law school that promises freedom of expression and association should uphold those same constitutional ideals.”
The dean of Pace Law School, Stephen J. Friedman, also disagreed with the SBA’s decision, but has not lifted the ban.
“The Pace administration must not stand idly by while the SBA denies basic associational rights to students of faith,” the president of FIRE said in a statement. “We hope they make the right decision.”
