Supreme Court To Hear No Gays Allowed Case

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from a Christian student group in San Francisco that refused to admit gays and lesbians. The court will decide if the group's rights to religious liberty and freedom of association supersedes a state university's ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Five years ago, a chapter of the Christian Legal Society at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law was informed that it would lose funding if it barred LGBT students from joining.

The organization's national policy states, "In view of the clear dictates of Scripture, unrepentant participation in and advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle is inconsistent with an affirmation of the Statement of Faith," reports the Los Angeles Times.

As a result of continuing to violate the university's policy that protects students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the Hastings chapter lost its recognition as an official student group.

Lawyers for the group filed suit, arguing that it was unconstitutional for a state-funded law school to deny official recognition to a religious group because of its values. As precedent, lawyers cited the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale decision, which in 2000 led to a Supreme Court decision that it was constitutional for the organization to prohibit gays from being Scout leaders.

The case, to be heard next year, could set new rules about excluding individuals from student groups.