Case of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

Right to Belong: Christian group says it does; California law school says it doesn’t
Apr 1, 2010
By David L. Hudson, Jr

Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky is monitoring the case of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez with a keen eye. One reason is substantive: The case features a clash between the rights of schools to enforce their nondiscrimination policies and student religious groups’ rights of freedom of association. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments April 19.

“It is enormously important to law schools and law student groups and to universities,” says Chemerinsky of the University of California at Irvine. the rest

Whatever the outcome, nearly everyone agrees that the decision will be important. “A ruling against CLS would give public educational institutions a green light to force student religious groups to deny their faith in order to be treated equally,” Baylor says, “and this would be a dramatic departure from what the First Amendment should mean and what the court has said it means in past decisions.”

Albert Mohler: Can Christian Organizations Remain Christian in a “Tolerant” Age?