Freedom of All Student Groups at Stake in CLS case at Supreme Court

By GREGORY S. BAYLOR
Monday, April 19, 2010

Marci Hamilton's column for this site regarding Christian Legal Society v. Martinez states that this case will cause the Supreme Court to "wade into the culture wars morass." To be sure, this case arises out of a leftwing university's attack on a theologically orthodox religious group. However, the legal principles involved transcend the particular positions taken by the contending sides on religious and moral questions. At stake is the freedom of all student groups to choose leaders who share their respective missions, free from undue government pressure. For decades, counter-cultural groups have invoked the First Amendment to protect themselves from hostile university administrators. In the past, groups on the Left resisted officials they perceived to be conservative. Now the roles are reversed. Just as the courts vindicated the Constitution in those cases, they should do so now as well. There is no need for the Court to "choose sides" in the culture war. It simply needs to uphold the Constitution.

Professor Hamilton declares that "no one who engages in sex that occurs outside of marriage between a man and a woman may be an officer or prayer leader." This is simply incorrect. CLS stated as follows on pages 35-36 in its opening brief filed in the Supreme Court:

In accordance with traditional Christian teaching, the CLS chapter does not exclude all those who engage in what they regard as immoral conduct, sexual or otherwise: The CLS membership policy excludes only those who do so "unrepentantly," which is religion-speak for those who do not regard the conduct as wrong or sinful and resolve to cease acting in that manner. Thus, far from excluding people on the basis of orientation, the CLS Statement of Faith excludes them on the basis of a conjunction of conduct and the belief that the conduct is not wrong. the rest