Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
An Obama-appointed judge just handed a victory to a Christian student group at the University of Iowa (UIowa).
Last August, UIowa purged close to 40 student groups from campus because they require group leaders to meet certain criteria, including religious.
The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA was included in this purge. The school claimed InterVarsity’s requirement that leaders should be followers of the Christian faith violated its so-called Human Rights Policy.
UIowa deregistered other religious groups with similar requirements.
A court sided with InterVarsity last Friday, according to the group’s legal counsel, Becket Law. The court ruled that UIowa officials will be held personally liable for deregistering InterVarsity and ordered the school to reinstate the group.
Judge Stephanie Rose, appointed by the previous president, also ruled in a Christian group’s favor in a previous case. She contended in February that the University of Iowa violated the U.S. Constitution when it removed Business Leaders In Christ (also a Becket Law client) from campus for requiring its leaders to be professing Christians.
Judge Rose didn’t understand why UIowa sanctioned InterVarsity after she ruled in favor of Business Leaders In Christ. From Becket Law:
The court did “not know how a reasonable person could have concluded this was acceptable,” since it “plainly” doubled down on the exact same conduct the court had already held unlawful. In a hearing last week, the court described the University’s conduct as “ludicrous” and “incredibly baffling.”
The University of Iowa’s vice-president is among those personally liable, and Becket Law noted that the school’s president could also be held personally liable.
Photo credit: By Vkulikov – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
My God this is not going to be a bad day for me Judge Stephanie Marie Rose actually knowing what the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America means I will not be able to tell any lawyer jokes today. I just had an evil thought just suppose President Donald John Trump were to appoint her as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court it would drive liberals crazy.
Doesn’t the 1st Amendment rely on a higher power?
The Declaration’s God-given unalienable rights?
Rights that we can’t relinquish no matter how much money bribery minded lobbyists intend to pay?
Lobbyists are how we lose constitutional rights but our legislators can never sell our God-given inalienable rights. @politicalbrew
It will be great when all these liberal dictators who have weaseled their way to the top of the “educational” pyramid and are found guilty of their censorship of Christian and conservative groups they will have to pay out of their own bank accounts.
I’m sure we will see a turn around in the future treatment of religious and conservative organizations