What Christian colleges can learn from the “Yeshiva” case at the Supreme Court

What Lessons Can Christian Universities Learn from the Supreme Court’s Decision in the “Yeshiva” Case?

For Christian universities with conservative views on sexuality and gender identity, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Yeshiva University v. YU Pride Alliance might portend difficulty.

As the court ruled, the ultra-conservative Jewish university must now publicly recognize an LGBT student club. When the ruling is fully understood, however, it portends well for Christian institutions of higher learning.

The issue was resolved in the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,” where substantive judgements are made without oral arguments and rival legal papers, as noted by court watchers. In this case, the justices found that Yeshiva University did not meet the requirements for judicial review, rejecting the university’s contention that a lower court’s decision to recognize the student club ran counter to the institution’s religious tenets.

The ruling might be seen as a threat to the right to free expression on campus for schools with sexual orientation-related rules of conduct. Nonetheless, the decision is a model of how the Supreme Court prioritizes procedure above outcome by mandating that the losing party exhaust all lower court alternatives before appealing to the Court of Last Resort.

To put it plainly, extrapolating from the court’s hypothetical “holistic” decision in this instance is a bad idea.

Two conservatives, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, joined the 5-4 majority in Yeshiva to rule that the institution had not yet run out of legal alternatives in its attempt to reverse a ruling by a state trial court. An essential point to note is that the judges did not come to any decision on the result of the case based on their evaluation of the constitutional arguments presented.

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The future of this case may be hinted at in the dissenting opinion, written by Samuel Alito and three other justices, who disagreed with the majority’s conclusion. How does Alito begin his discussion of this issue? “Does the First Amendment empower a State to coerce a Jewish school to educate its pupils in conformity with an interpretation of Torah that the institution, after careful study, has established is incorrect?” I think we may safely say “no” to that inquiry.

Alito continues by saying that the court has enough members to consider the matter in full (it only takes four) and that Yeshiva “would certainly prevail if its case came before us.”

Alito’s assumption that a majority of the Supreme Court justices would rule in favor of Yeshiva University if this case were to be reviewed in its entirety has a lot of support.

The court’s track record in instances involving religious freedom is consistent with Yeshiva’s first point. Recent Supreme Court cases concerning the Free Exercise Clause, such as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, and Carson v. Makin, all favored broadening safeguards for religious liberty. There is nothing about Yeshiva that suggests it will buck this trend.

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Second, the Supreme Court would have a clear chance to reverse a confusing ruling from 2010. The court held in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez that a Christian Legal Society chapter at the University of California could not continue to receive school funds while excluding students who did not endorse the organization’s religious statement from leadership roles.

Martinez has been criticized for violating several First Amendment rights, notably the right to peacefully assemble. There is still one justice from the original majority coalition on the court, and the case of Yeshiva looks like a good avenue for them to reconsider their unusual precedent.

Last but not least, Yeshiva would provide the Supreme Court with another another chance to strike a middle ground between religious liberty and LGBT rights. The court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that federal civil rights legislation does apply to sexual orientation and gender identity, while simultaneously emphasizing that this does not lessen safeguards for religious freedom.

It looked like the judiciary was going to be able to achieve what the legislature had failed to do: find a middle ground between the many opposing rights claims. One more step in this approach would be a future ruling in favor of Yeshiva University.

It’s easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to adverse Supreme Court decisions, proclaiming them as signs of certain doom. One lawyer, Keisha Toni Russell of the First Liberty Institute, saw the court’s Yeshiva ruling as allowing “legalized ideological superiority” over religious organizations in a recent piece.

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An example of “the cultural imperialism of the Left,” as Ben Shapiro put it. In addition, Edmund Burke Foundation chairman Yoram Hazony tweeted, “Orthodox Judaism can no longer be practiced openly in New York.”

Still, sometimes it helps to take a step back and examine the larger picture to gain perspective. Even if the Supreme Court did not rule in Yeshiva University’s favor, this is not the end of the road.

If it runs out of options at the state level, it will file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyers for Yeshiva seem to understand that the court may reverse a ruling that undermines the college’s religious mandate, as Alito pointed out.

Scripture often challenges believers to use their discernment. This is true not just in our internal pursuit of God’s knowledge and the development of the Holy Spirit, but also in our external relationships. Although the latest Supreme Court judgment was a setback for Catholic universities, the realities of the situation ensure that we haven’t heard the last of this debate just yet.

There, Christians may seize the initiative in recognizing the complexities of a situation like this, doing so with the assurance that our ultimate hope is not dependent on their acceptance.

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