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Dear Friend,
Discriminatory officials at Wayne State University just got schooled. On April 5, a federal court ruled that Wayne State had discriminated against InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a Christian club, when school officials kicked InterVarsity off campus for requiring their leaders to share the mission’s Christian faith.
This was a clear case of discrimination: the university regularly allowed non-religious groups to require their leaders to share beliefs central to their groups’ purpose, but it didn’t allow religious groups to do the same. The court admonished Wayne State for violating the students’ First Amendment rights and said Wayne State officials will be held personally liable for their actions. Best of all, InterVarsity gets to stay where it belongs, on campus providing fellowship to its members.
This is a huge victory for religious liberty and student rights. In non-legal terms, where two or three are gathered in God’s name, the government can’t choose who leads the meeting!
We are celebrating this win, but we know there are more challenges to come. Right now, a class action lawsuit threatens Title IX religious exemptions. The lawsuit claims that Title IX exemptions for religious colleges are discriminatory. But these exemptions have historically been important to providing students—often minority students—with choices that align with their religious beliefs. Allowing religious schools to practice their faith is not discrimination, it is tolerance. Becket is already active in this area, where we’ve won in federal court defending a theological seminary after students tried to sue under Title IX (the decision has been appealed; stay tuned).
We might disagree with each other. In all likelihood, we will sometimes find other people’s beliefs misguided— objectionable, even. But to safeguard freedom means to protect what our founder Seamus Hasson calls “the right to be wrong.” And we have a myriad of threats to watch: If Title IX religious exemptions go away, and if statutory and constitutional religious freedom protections are not enforced, we will see that precious right to disagree start to slip away.
What’s happening at Becket
Leave those kids alone. Becket is joining up with the Christian Legal Society to take the fight for student associational rights back to high school. A chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the San Jose school district was targeted for asking its leaders to embrace its faith, aggressively bullied and intimidated by school officials and fellow students, and ultimately kicked out at the same time that the school welcomed in a chapter of The Satanic Temple Club. The case is similar to Becket’s university cases, and is part of an effort to stop nationwide discrimination against religious student groups and ensure they are treated fairly and equally.
The soul of a tribe. Our clients at Apache Stronghold were featured in an NBC video spot covering their case to save Oak Flat, the centuries-old Apache holy land which is set to be transferred to an international mining company, Resolution Copper, which would destroy their ancestral lands—their equivalent of having the government sell and bulldoze the Temple Mount. Their case is currently at the Ninth Circuit. The NBC video features the Apache Sunrise Ceremony—an important coming-of-age ceremony for Apache women which takes place at Oak Flat.
Serving his country, living his faith. Poseidon, king of the sea, may wear a beard, but make no mistake—at least some American sailors are required to be clean shaven and religious exceptions are becoming harder to come by. Becket filed an emergency lawsuit earlier this month on behalf of Orthodox Jewish sailor, Edmund Di Liscia, who was suddenly ordered to shave his beard while at sea off the coast of Singapore. Becket is fighting for a religious accommodation for Di Liscia and several fellow soldiers, so they won't have to choose between serving their country or their faith.
Becket in the news
The Right to Assemble isn’t just about college campuses. This week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta, the case about whether non-profits have to divulge their lists of donors in response to state-level government demands. Becket’s amicus brief argues for a better definition of the freedom of assembly, and AEI scholar Yuval Levin agrees. Becket's amicus brief was mentioned three times during oral argument, including by Justices Barrett and Kagan. While not a religious liberty case, per se, Becket's arguments were recognized as among the most cogent and compelling in favor of donor privacy. Here’s the audio!
Do as we say, not as we do. Last week the Biden administration appealed Becket’s win in Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra, our case protecting religious doctors and hospitals from being forced to perform gender transition procedures in violation of their conscience and best medical judgement. Becket president Mark Rienzi appeared on Fox & Friends to explain why we keep winning in the courts and how misguided the federal government’s position is—especially considering that plenty of their own departments are exempt from the very rule they’re trying to force on religious healthcare professionals.
A crash course on the ministerial exception. Enjoy the Federalist Society’s jazzy explainer video on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Becket’s ministerial exception case, Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. Professor Doug Laycock, who partnered with Becket to win Hosanna-Tabor, gives a suave explanation of the landmark case that restored the right of religious organizations to make personnel decisions in accordance with their religious beliefs and set Becket on a journey toward expanding church autonomy doctrine.
No, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling. Fearmongers at the Boston Review wrote a scathing piece accusing proponents of religious liberty in Fulton v. Philadelphia of seeking a “blanket pass” to ignore the law. Our adversaries have always argued that protecting religious freedom will set us down a slippery slope of exempting religious Americans from all sorts of important laws. But the truth is that religious freedom claims are often balanced against other compelling interests and, as we’ve seen time and time again, the government can usually achieve its goals without violating religious liberty. This should be good news for all of us!
What we’re reading
Does the Supreme Court favor conservatives? Kelsey Dallas’ piece in the Deseret News explains why religion’s “hot streak” of winning at the Supreme Court doesn’t just come down to conservative Justices. On the question of whether the Court favors a Christian majority, UVA School of Law’s Professor Douglas Laycock says no: ‘“There is no religious majority” in the U.S. anymore, Laycock said. “We are all minorities now.”’
As for me and my house…Robert Dunn writes for the LA Times on the Supreme Court’s critical ruling striking down California’s discriminatory at-home worship restrictions: “state and local governments…cannot trample religious liberty while exempting their political allies and favored industries — such as Hollywood and big-box retailers.”
Sick of cancel culture? If you’re as sick of “cancel culture” as I am, you may want to check out this excellent piece by Becket lawyers William Haun and Daniel Chen. In it, they lay out Becket’s definition of freedom of assembly and why it’s so important: “assemblies do not simply allow individuals to express themselves. Rather, they form citizens in the virtues that make and sustain self-government.”
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Gratefully,
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Montse Alvarado
Executive Director |
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