A pretty striking First Amendment violation rectified, below. Suppose the "uniqueness" requirement applied to all student organizations? Not that any state university would ever do that. But if it did, what rule for religious organizations?
Tom Berg _________________ Center for Law and Religious Freedom Secures Recognition from Penn State University for Christian Student Club UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - The Pennsylvania State University agreed yesterday to grant DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship status as a University approved student organization. The University's decision came in response to a lawsuit the Christian Legal Society's Center for Law and Religious Freedom filed against it on June 22, 2004. The CLS Center filed the lawsuit because Penn State refused to recognize DiscipleMakers. The University claimed the campus already had "too many" Christian clubs. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleges that the University's use of a "uniqueness requirement" to deprive Christian student clubs of the status and benefits of an approved club is unconstitutional. According to Penn State's former policy, religious student organizations, unlike secular school clubs, were required to prove to a University administrator, the Director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs, that they were sufficiently "unique" from existing religious student clubs to warrant recognition. Penn State's Counsel now assures Center attorneys that student clubs with a "religious purpose or function will no longer be subject to the policy which precludes registration if those purposes or functions duplicate those of an already existing registered student organization." The University's counsel specifically guaranteed that Penn State will approve DiscipleMakers as a registered student organization. Christian Legal Society, a 42 year-old nationwide association of Christian attorneys, law students, law professors, and judges, established the Center for Law and Religious Freedom in 1975. The Center is among the most respected voices in the religious liberty arena. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
