On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the the Christian Legal Society's challenge to the "all comers" policy at UC's Hastings College of the Law. In brief, the college will provide funding and preferred access to any student organization, so long as that organization agrees to allow in anyone who wants to attend. Sounds simple enough.
Only the Christian Legal Society chapter at the college wanted the right to exclude homosexuals from their meetings. When the school refused to fund that policy, the CLS sued all the way to the Supreme Court.
Yesterdays arguments, during which the CLS lawyers championed the idea that religious beliefs entitled believers to ignore the rights of others, saw some (sad but expected) support for the idea from Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. However, the most astonishing exchange of the day may have been this bit involving Justice Sotomayor and Justice Stevens.
CLS lawyer Michael McConnell opened by telling the court that Hastings' all-comers policy is a "frontal assault on freedom of association" and "the right to form around shared beliefs."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked: So what if a group "wanted to exclude all black people, all women, all handicapped persons?" Are you saying the school would have to "give it funds and otherwise lend it space?"
"Not at all," McConnell responded. There is a difference between discrimination based on belief and discrimination based on status, he said. "We have only challenged the beliefs, not status."
Justice John Paul Stevens followed up: "What if the belief is that African-Americans are inferior?"
If belief is the basis for exclusion, then that is permissible, said McConnell.
See. You if you can't discriminate because of any reason, but you can still discriminate if you think people are inferior. That makes... no kind of sense at all. Personally I believe that the CLS is full to the top with un-Christian BS.
Oh, and happy belated 90th birthday, Justice Stevens. No matter what happens from here, we will miss your level headed presence on the bench.