Arizona State Univ. Revises Policy, Recognizes Campus Christian Group
by Jim Brown
September 12, 2005
(AgapePress) - Arizona State University says it will no longer deny official recognition to a Christian student group because of its requirement that its members and leaders be Christians.
Attorneys for Arizona State have agreed to reinstate the school's Christian Legal Society chapter and recognize that religious student groups can select leaders and members who are Christians. The move comes after CLS filed a lawsuit challenging a portion of ASU's sexual orientation non-discrimination policy which would require the group to admit non-Christians and homosexuals as members and leaders.
CLS chief litigation counsel Steve Aden says the settlement agreement is a big victory for the Christian group. In essence, he says, ASU recognized that its policy was unconstitutional. "They have agreed to amend their policies for registering student organizations to include an express statement that religious organizations may select members and leaders on the basis of religious faith," the attorney explains.
Aden hopes the university's about-face will prompt other schools to rescind their prohibitions against CLS.
"We frankly hope that other public universities and colleges are sitting up and taking notice that when they violate First Amendment rights of expression, association, and free exercise of religious student groups, they're going to be challenged," Aden says. "And we are willing to take these matters to court and press them as hard as we possibly can."
CLS has filed half a dozen lawsuits against universities that have denied official recognition to the group. The campus group saw one of those cases apparently resolved in late August when a federal appeals court ordered Southern Illinois University to immediately reinstate the CLS chapter at that school. SIU, like Arizona State, had held that the campus group was violating the university's affirmative action policy by requiring its members and leaders be Christians.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
