Another Lawsuit Attacks University’s Denial of Recognition to Christian Student Group

A national legal group that seeks to defend religious freedom has filed a lawsuit challenging a decision by the University of Wisconsin at Superior to strip the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of its status as a student group on the campus, according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Alliance Defense Fund sued this week in a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin.

The InterVarsity group allows students of all faiths to be members but requires its leaders to pledge to uphold the group’s specific beliefs, including that homosexuality is a sin, according to the newspaper.

University officials have said that the group’s policy is illegal and discriminatory, and last year they stripped InterVarsity of its status as a student group on the campus. That means that InterVarsity cannot meet or advertise on university property. It also cannot receive funds from student fees.

In July the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, whose jurisdiction includes Wisconsin, ruled in a similar case that Southern Illinois University at Carbondale must continue to recognize a campus Christian group that excludes homosexual students as members while the group’s lawsuit against the university is pending. A divided three-judge panel of the court issued an injunction that prevents the university from withdrawing its official recognition of the Christian Legal Society for the duration of the legal case (The Chronicle, July 11).

At least one other federal judge, however, reached a different conclusion in a similar case. Last spring the judge ruled that the University of California’s Hastings College of Law could deny funds and recognition to a Christian student group that bans gay students as members (The Chronicle, April 20).