Today the ACLJ was disappointed in the Supreme Court of the United State's decision involving the constitutional rights of religious organizations.
In a 5-4 ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the high court upheld a California law school's denial of official recognition of a Christian student group - a group that refused, and rightly so, to allow non-Christians to become voting members or leaders.
The ACLJ filed an amicus brief with the Court in this case, representing numerous Christian campus organizations.
This is an extremely disappointing decision significantly damaging the constitutional rights of religious organizations. The majority of the Supreme Court missed the mark in understanding that it is fundamental to religious freedom that religious groups are free to define their own mission, select their own leaders, and determine their own membership criteria.
By permitting a discriminatory decision by the federal appeals court to stand, the Supreme Court decision represents, as Justice Alito correctly concluded in the dissent, ''a serious setback for freedom of expression in this country.'' And, we, like Justice Alito, hope this decision will be an aberration and not a shift in First Amendment jurisprudence.
No comments:
Post a Comment