Truth Be Told: Appeals Court Says Christian Student Group Can’t Discriminate
Regardless of any adage, truth does not always prevail — especially when “Truth” is a student Christian club intent on discriminating against others on public school grounds in Kent, Wash.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently against a Christian student club involved in a lengthy legal spat to force Kentridge High School to recognize it and allow it to meet during the day on school grounds. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that Truth had faltered in arguing that it should be exempt from Washington State’s and the school district’s anti-discrimination law and policies.
The students behind Truth argued that Kentridge High School’s Associated Student Body (ASB) Council should grant it an exemption from anti-discrimination policies and provide it a charter to operate on campus.
ASB and Kentridge High School officials said they could not do so since Truth maintained that it would discriminate against certain students. The student group insisted that “membership is contingent upon the member complying in good faith with Christian character, Christian speech, Christian behavior and Christian conduct as generally described by the Bible.”
Additionally, the group declared that members must show a “true desire to … grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ” and that voting members must sign a statement affirming that he or she believes “the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”
When the Kent student council voted against official recognition for the club, Truth students turned to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Religious Right legal group. The ADF argued in court that the school district’s actions violated a host of constitutional rights and the federal Equal Access Act.
The 9th Circuit in Truth v. Kent School District found, however, that the school was on sound legal ground. States are justified in “prohibiting invidious discrimination,” the panel held, and that nothing Kent school officials and students did targeted Truth’s free speech or religious liberty rights.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the matter, urging the 9th Circuit to stand by the school district’s anti-discrimination polices. AU argued that “allowing Truth to discriminate on the basis of religion while forbidding all other ASB clubs from discriminating on any other basis would confer an exclusive governmental benefit on a religious group.”
The 9th Circuit refused to grant Truth special rights.
“Truth,” the panel ruled, “asserts that it does not discriminate based on religion in violation of the plain language of the District’s policies, but rather imposes a code of conduct not unlike those of other approved ASB clubs. Even assuming that non-Christians would be able to comply with Truth’s view of ‘Christian character, Christian speech, Christian behavior and Christian conduct,’ we hold that the requirement that members possess a ‘true desire to … grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ’ inherently excludes non-Christians.”
Instead, the 9th Circuit backed the school district’s refusal to grant Truth an exemption from anti-discrimination regulations, arguing that school officials were doing so not because of the club’s religious speech, “but rather because of its discriminatory membership criteria.”
Despite Truth’s assertions that the Equal Access Act demands that Kent provide it an exemption from anti-discrimination regulations, the 9th Circuit pointed to the congressional record surrounding passage of the federal law to turn away that argument.
According to the 9th Circuit, Congress “recognized the possibility that religious groups like Truth might claim that content-neutral policies regulating club membership violate the Act” and thus stated in a Senate Report that “the guarantee of equal access does not require special treatment for religious groups. Religious groups are accorded only the same rights and privileges as are granted to other student groups.”
The 9th Circuit noted that the school district’s anti-discrimination regulations have not barred other Bible clubs from officially operating on school grounds. Two Bible clubs are recognized at Kentridge High School.
The Alliance Defense Fund, formed by high-profile Religious Right operatives such as James Dobson and D. James Kennedy, failed Truth on all fronts. Kent school officials and policies, as noted by 9th Circuit, were not aimed at muzzling student religious expression, but were rightly targeted at blocking discrimination.