Posted on 09/19/2022 5:59:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
After the Supreme Court denied a bid to block an LGBTQ+ group from forming at its campus, Yeshiva University in New York City has opted to temporarily suspend all student groups.
“The university will hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom,” the school’s newspaper, The Commentator reported.
The original dispute came about when a New York state court ordered Yeshiva to fully recognize an LGBTQ+ club known as the “Pride Alliance” on campus, the New York Post reported. Since Yeshiva is a religious institution and not a public university, it argued that it could not be forced to recognize something that was not in accordance with its religious values and mission. A New York judge disagreed, stating that as an educational institution the school could not rely on “religious liberty” to ban the club’s formation, according to the NY Post.
The university asked for a stay to put the New York decision on pause, but that motion was denied by the US Supreme Court Wednesday in a 5-4 vote.
Reaction to the university’s decision has been met with confusion and frustration from student leaders.
“We were not expecting the university to take this drastic measure, and have not received any guidance about how we are to proceed with approving clubs, or having student council events,” Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) President Baruch Lerman stated according to The Commentator.
Former student and plaintiff in the case against the university, Tai Miller, reacted to the club suspension announcement on Twitter, stating that the university’s decision to cancel all groups rather than work with one LGBTQ+ support group was reminiscent of the reactions in the South to court-ordered desegregation.
University President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman stated that Yeshiva simply seeks that same right of self-determination that every faith-based university in the country has to work with its students, including its LGBTQ students, “to establish the clubs, places and spaces that fit within its faith tradition.”
“The Supreme Court has laid out the roadmap for us to find expedited relief, and we will follow their instructions. At the same time, as our commitment to and love for our LGBTQ students are unshakable, we continue to extend our hand in invitation to work together to create a more inclusive campus life consistent with our Torah values,” he concluded.
“Just meet and keep your mouths shut about it.”
It should be university policy that the university welcomes students to exercise their Constitutional rights of freedom of speech and association, and that it is not the place of the University to interfere or comment on it.
Then the University should keep their mouths shut about it.
Thanks a lot for the clarification. I still wonder why Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito saw it on its face value as private religious institution can do what it wants.
I’m not a legal scholar but they are. Much moreso than the clowns on the other side if the decision.
I hope the university wins this round. As a religious university, they should be exempt. I hope their attorneys are many and adept.
It’s just another try by Big Brother to destroy religion.
Yep. Make them all feel the pain!
No, not really. But they did say it had to go back through the courts.
Ultimately Kegger will be forced to rule the right way.
As Churchill said of the Americans, “they can always be counted on to do the right thing after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”
Just wow.
That whole “separation of Church and State” thing (Jefferson letter) was more about the State NOT being able to meddle in the affairs of religion.
FREEDOM of RELIGION. A religious school now being dictated to, regarding it’s internal activities, by a government entity.
This has to go to the S.C. and the outcome will either support or destroy this nation.
The Dem-Libs see it as “FREEDOM FROM RELIGION” ...............
Yes they do...which is innately oppressive.
I suspect some of the other justices saw it that same way. Again, the Court ruled against taking the case at this time, not "against" Yeshiva on the issue itself. Gorsuch, Thomas, and Alito just believed that they should take the case right now rather than doing what they'd normally do and wait.
Yeshiva actually was really smart to handle this the way they have. They've now banned all clubs, and are using that to push for an expedited appeal in the state courts. If they don't get it, SCOTUS likely will take it.
As odd as this sounds, kind of everyone thinks they're case is so important that it shouldn't have to go through the lower courts. Some of the Justices are just concerned that if they do that too often, the floodgates will open and they'll get too many of those expedited appeals to process. I can see both sides because it really is an extremely important and urgent issue.
My guess is that Yeshiva ultimately wins.
Wouldn’t the same anti-discrimination precept apply to censorship of conservatives on Twitter?
Only if twitter is considered a ‘public utility’.................
No.
Yeshiva is being sued under a state law that prohibits discrimination against the LGBT crowd. There are other state and federal laws that prohibit even private sector discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, etc..
However, political viewpoint discrimination by private employers is not prohibited by federal law, nor by most states. So legally, you can generally be discriminated against because of your political beliefs unless you work for a public employer.
There’s an irony here. Francis Collins, the man who mapped the human genome, concluded that the heritability (propensity) for homosexuality was 30% — not statistically significant. He also concluded that the heritability for traditionalism was 54%. Of course, the traditionalism of Orthodox Jews is rooted in upbringing. But based on Collins’s statistics, one could make a reasonable argument that traditionalism should trump homosexuality.
Thanks again.
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