Rabbinical students win state tuition aid in New York

The New York state budget calls for cuts aid to public education by 10 percent but adds $18 million in tuition assistance for students attending some private religious schools. The major potential beneficiaries are men attending Orthodox rabbinical schools as undergraduates.

[The New York Times (subscription may be required) via Inside Higher Ed]

Texas bill would bar penalizing students or faculty who rejected evolution

A Texas legislator has filed a bill aimed at protecting Texas college professors and students from discrimination based on their questioning evolution.

The measure from Republican state Rep. Bill Zedler would block higher education institutions from discriminating against or penalizing teachers or students based on their research into intelligent design or other theories that disagree with evolution.

Zedler said he filed the bill because of cases in which colleges had been hostile to those who believe that certain features of life-forms are so complex that they must have originated from a higher power.

"We can have the academic freedom to have all kinds of ideas and philosophies but, lo and behold, even mention intelligent design and there are people that want to run you out of town on a rail," Zedler said.

[The Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Inside Higher Ed]

White House wants colleges to promote religious tolerance

The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription may be required] reports that on March 17, 2011, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships announced  an effort to get college presidents to advocate interfaith understanding on their campuses. The effort will be supported with a website that the White House plans to create.

The White House announcement, a video by President Obama, and additional links in support of the initiative are here.

Air Force Academy asks for informal review of religion on campus

The Air Force Academy has asked retired Air Force General Patrick K. Gable, former commandant of cadets at the Academy and currently president of the University of Alaska, informally to review how the Academy was doing since charges of religious intolerance were lodged in 2004.

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, criticized the scope of the review.

The problem at the school is not with any restriction on the free exercise of religion, but with unwanted proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians, a violation of the constitutional concept of the separation of church and state, he said.

Gamble said he was assembling a team of five or six members with expertise in law, religion, and academics and had not yet decided whether they would look at the separation issue.

[The Associated Press]

More on UW-Madison religious funding case

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik offers detailed background and analysis to the decision of the American Council on Education and six other national higher education organizations to file amicus briefs in support of the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s appeal of an appellate court ruling that the university improperly denied funding for Catholic worship activities sponsored by an approved student group.

A key part of the 2-to-1 ruling of by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit involved the university’s decision to fund broad categories of activities in the first place. The majority decision indicated that the university could have blocked student fees from going to the activities in question if it had blocked entire categories of support — whether conducted by secular or religious groups. Once a university allows any category of student activity to receive support, however, the court ruled that it can’t bar support for that activity just because it may involve worship.

For their part, the university and the higher education organizations filing the amicus brief argue that certain kinds of religious activity should not be supported by public funds.

Are campus police at church-related colleges a violation of the separation of church and state?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a detailed report [subscription  required] on whether the arrest powers of campus police on religiously-affiliated campuses violate the constitutional separation of church and state. The issue is now before the state supreme court of North Carolina, which must decide on the legality of an arrest of a student by a Davidson College police officer for drunken and reckless driving. A state appellate court has already ruled that delegating police power to a religious institution constitutes “excessive entanglement” of government and religion. The article sketches the wider context and discusses implications for other college campus police forces, both in North Carolina and elsewhere.

The Supreme Court Decision on Anti-Bias Policy and Religious Freedom

It will probably take some time before the full scope of the Supreme Court decision on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (Hastings School of Law, University of California, Berkeley) becomes clear. The 5-4 ruling upheld Hastings’s nondiscrimination policies that denied official recognition or funding to a student organization, Christian Legal Society, that maintained belief-based criteria for membership. A PDF of the Supreme Court ruling on, to give it its full name, CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY CHAPTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, HASTINGS COLLEGE OF THE LAW, AKA HASTINGS CHRISTIAN FELLOW-SHIP v. MARTINEZ ET AL., can be found here. The Chronicle of Higher Education offers a detailed analysis with reactions from different parties to the suit. The Chronicle’s headline suggests that the decision “may have limited impact.”

Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Bias Rules

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (Hastings School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley) that public colleges and universities may require religious organizations that seek school recognition and funding to comply with the school’s anti-bias rules. In this specific case, Hastings bars discrimination based on sexual orientation while the Christian Legal Society claimed that the bar infringed on its First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

For initial details, see Inside Higher Ed’s initial post. Inside Higher Ed plans to offer more extensive coverage tomorrow. Here at  Religion on Our Campuses, I’ll aggregate links to further coverage and analysis as they become available.

Peralta Community College settles suit regarding prayer in class

The Peralta Community College District in California will pay $90,000 for legal fees to two students who faced suspension and disciplinary letters after praying in class and in a teacher’s office. The disciplinary letters will be removed from their files.

[The Contra Costa Times via Inside Higher Ed]

Oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (Hastings School of Law)—with links

We have been following the news regarding the legal challenge that the Christian Legal Society (CLS) made to the non-discrimination policy of the University of California Hastings School of Law. The CLS student group asserts a constitutionally protected right to limit its voting membership to those who affirm the group’s Christian faith statement. The CLS also regards "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" as being inconsistent with its statement of faith. The decision in this case may force colleges and universities to rewrite their non-discrimination policies to let student groups reject potential members on the basis of religious belief or sexual practices.

The United States Supreme Court has now heard oral arguments in the case, and a variety of news organizations have reports:

• Perhaps the most helpful for the purposes of this blog is the account offered by The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription may be required]. It offers more summary of the oral arguments, analysis, and expert opinion than the other links collected here.
• The Associated Press piece in The New York Times has some details not found in the Chronicle.
• Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly offers an interview of two of the principals: Leo Martinez, Dean and Acting Chancellor, Hastings College of the Law; and Greg Baylor, Attorney, Christian Legal Society.
• The official transcript of the oral argument is here.
• Here is CSL’s key public page on the suit, and
• Here is Hasting’s page linking to other reports and opinion pieces.