U.S. Supreme Court: Can Scripture trump non-discrimination law?

[The Straight Story]

U.S. Supreme Court: Can Scripture trump non-discrimination law?

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court justices are rolling back the sleeves of their robes to wrestle with yet another church and state case this term. The justices should be prepared for some heavy lifting.

....

The Christian Legal Society, founded in 1961, described itself to the Supreme Court as "a nationwide association of lawyers, law students, law professors and judges who profess faith in Jesus Christ."

Any student who wishes to become a "voting member of CLS must affirm a commitment to the group's foundational principles by signing the national CLS Statement of Faith. … A shared devotion to Jesus Christ is reflected in the Statement of Faith, the affirmation of which indicates a member's commitment to beliefs commonly regarded as orthodox in the protestant evangelical and Catholic traditions."

....

After first appearing to accept CLS's application, the school ultimately decided the society's restrictions on membership violated the institution's non-discrimination policy.

In an exchange of letters, the CLS chapter told Hastings anyone could attend its meetings, but only students who adhered to its Statement of Faith could become voting members, the only type of membership available. The chapter said its exclusion applied only to practicing homosexuals, not to those who remain chaste.

The school responded by saying that as an institution that accepted public funds, it was bound by state and federal laws against discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation. The removal from the list of RSOs had practical effects. Officially, the school would no longer pay travel costs for CLS chapter officers to attend national meetings, the group could not reserve rooms for meetings (though the school continued to allow this) and the society was excluded from some mailings sent to law students.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/13/US-Supreme-Court-Can-Scripture-trump-non-discrimination-law/UPI-23981260688500/

[wintoursghost]

1. Keep Your God out of my God's face...

...and we'll get along just fine.

And keep all God's, faiths and magic flying ponies out of reality.
Taking your faith into law and politics is following the god of Political Action Committees.

That is a pretty cheap sounding religion these clowns are following.

[1monster]

2. Should be interesting to watch the developments on this case...

[niyad]

3. don't you just love a theocracy? what, exactly, is the difference between the

xian reich wanting religion to control every aspect of our lives, and the fundamentalists of certain other belief systems?

[baldguy]

4. The CLS wants to discriminate against, exclude from society & ultimately kill nonbelievers.

To do that they want to use tax dollars gathered from those very same nonbelievers.

And they're surprised that the people they hate have a problem with this?

[malaise]

5. A perfect summary

They're batshit crazy.

[Historic NY]

6. The boy scouts couldn't use schools..if they discriminated.

http://borngay.procon.org/viewadditionalresource.asp?resourceID=000030

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Not IMHO

If religious organizations/institutions accept public money, they need to abide by the law, period.... I am soooooo tired of religious organizations taking public money and expecting to be able to avoid paying taxes and engaging in whatever kind of behavior they want to with few, if any, consequences or regards for the law.