Lawyer Confident Christian Students' Lawsuit Against UC Will Proceed
by Jim Brown
July 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A California attorney says a federal judge is likely to allow plaintiffs accusing the University of California (UC) university system of engaging in viewpoint discrimination against Christian students and schools to take their case to trial. Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, with some 1,300 students, recently filed suit against the UC system, claiming it prohibits the Christian high school's students from receiving academic credit for courses taught from a Christian perspective. Last week, Judge James Otero conducted a hearing in Los Angeles District Court to consider UC's request that he dismiss the suit.
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Bob Tyler, general counsel for the legal group Advocates for Faith and Freedom, is representing six Calvary Chapel Christian School students. He is confident Otero will let their lawsuit go to court.
"This judge seemed to clearly understand the argument that we're making," Tyler says, "that the University of California is attempting to secularize private Christian schools by requiring that the curriculum that receives credit for college prep purposes not be 'too religious.'"
Officials with Calvary Chapel say the Christian school's courses were rejected by UC because they used textbooks printed by two conservative Christian publishers: Bob Jones University Press in South Carolina and A Beka Books in Pensacola, Florida. Tyler anticipates that the judge presiding over the matter will allow some -- if not all -- of the Christian students' complaints to be heard in court.
"There's a few portions of the lawsuit that may not proceed," the students' attorney notes. "However, the substance and most important aspect of our case will continue to go forward," he says, "and that is the fact that U.C. is engaging in viewpoint discrimination -- that is, discrimination against Christian schools not because of the academic content but because of the viewpoints that are taught from a Christian worldview."
According to a USA Today report, the 10-campus University of California system has rejected the content of courses such as "Christianity's Influence in American History" and "Christianity and Morality in American Literature." The Calvary Chapel's civil rights lawsuit against UC charges that the university system is infringing upon the right of "a religious school to be religious."
The six Calvary Chapel students Tyler represents allege that UC has violated some Christian schools' freedom of speech and religious freedom rights by rejecting their courses for college credit, thereby discriminating against students attending these schools. The attorney says the court will probably issue a written ruling within a month.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
