What’s new: Campus Bible Fellowship (CBF) has sued officials at the State University of New York’s Broome Community College in federal court, alleging the school’s antidiscrimination policy blocks the club from requiring that its leaders be practicing Christians. The complaint was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Binghamton Division, according to the source article.
The complaint’s claims
CBF’s filing says SUNY Broome “refuses to officially recognize CBF as a student club,” which the complaint argues prevents the group from reserving campus space and accessing financial resources. The lawsuit accuses the college of violating the group’s First Amendment rights and alleges that “other student clubs at SUNY Broome” are allowed to “limit their leadership positions and/or membership rights to select students.”
CBF’s legal team and argument
CBF is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), described by the source as a conservative legal group. “The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations are free to select faithful leaders,” ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said in a statement released Tuesday. “But SUNY Broome’s policy undermines that right by seeking to control a fundamental aspect of CBF’s governance, doctrine, and faith. Forcing CBF to accept leaders who don’t share their religious beliefs fundamentally alters their religious expression.”
A parallel InterVarsity case
The new CBF suit follows another lawsuit against the same policy filed by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to the source. InterVarsity’s complaint states that “in the past fifteen years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that religious organizations have a fundamental First Amendment right to freely select religious leaders without state interference,” and contends “the Supreme Court has warned governments three times that they cannot deny religious organizations access to benefits because of their religious beliefs.”
InterVarsity’s Broome chapter is represented by the Becket Fund, which the source describes as a Washington, D.C.-based legal group. “Everyone is welcome,” Jake Sonner of InterVarsity Broome said in a statement last month. “You don’t have to be a Christian to walk through our door. We just ask that students who lead our prayers and worship actually share the faith they are helping others live out. A public college shouldn’t exclude us for that.”
Wider context noted by the source
The source reports that this Broome dispute is the third time in recent years that an InterVarsity club was excluded from a public college over leadership standards, pointing to disputes at Wayne State University and the University of Iowa, where federal courts ultimately ruled for the student groups after litigation.
