U. S. Supreme Court Rejects Christian Group's Claim of Right to Discriminate

One of the special rights that Christianist groups routinely demand is to receive tax payer derived funds and yet be able to openly discriminate at will against taxpaying citizens they dislike. This is precisely the form of special privilege that the Virginia General Assembly granted to "private" adoption agencies that line up like hogs at the taxpayer funds trough yet then want to be free to discriminate against gays and others who offend their hate and bigotry based religious sensibilities. Fortunately, the U. S. Supreme Court shot down this demand for special rights in the context of Christian groups on college campus that want to suck up public derived funds yet discriminate against gays and others. Rather than take the appeal of Christian fraternity and sorority at San Diego State University that wanted to exclude gays and non-Christians, the Supreme Court let stand the decision of the Court of Appeals which allowed the University to deny the fraternity and sorority officially recognized status. The Boston Globe has coverage as does Huffington Post. Here are highlights from Huffington Post's Religion page:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a request by Christian groups on a college campus to allow them to limit membership based on religious beliefs. Justice turned back a legal effort by a Christian fraternity and sorority at San Diego State University that challenged an anti-discrimination policy at California state universities.

The lawsuit filed in 2005 said the plaintiffs should be allowed to insist members follow their religious standards of conduct and avoid sex outside of marriage between a man and woman.

The Alliance Defense Fund, based on Scottsdale, Ariz., argued the case for the groups, David Cortman, senior counsel for the fund, said San Diego State will "remain a stronghold of censorship" as a result of the court decision.

The Alpha Gamma Omega-Epsilon Chapter fraternity and the Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter sorority continue to exist but have struggled. Refusing to go along with the school's nondiscrimination policy made the groups ineligible for a host of privileges such as getting student funding, posting signs on campus, reserving office and meeting space, using the school name or mascot and promoting themselves on the university website.

With Monday's decision, the justices let stand a federal appeals court ruling that found San Diego State University's nondiscrimination policy doesn't violate the Constitution. . . . The decision to stay out of the case avoids revisiting questions that resulted in a 2010 decision that said a law school can deny recognition to a Christian student group that wouldn't let gays join.

Several religious groups recognized by San Diego State also welcomed the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to stay out of the 2010 case. I think it's a great policy. I don't think there should be any discrimination at all, in any way," said Curtis Lester, 22, a fifth-year student and president of the Aztec Christian Association.

One can only hope that Virginia's anti-gay adoption statute will be challenged and that a similar result will end state funding to discriminatory adoption agencies. If these groups want to be bigots, they are free to do so. They just need to stop gorging themselves on taxpayer funds.