Friends in odd places

WASHINGTON-A Muslim group, a gay group, 14 states, and the Conference of Catholic Bishops are among the groups supporting the case of the Christian Legal Society that will come before the U.S. Supreme Court later this term, which extends into the summer.

More than a dozen groups filed amicus briefs supporting the Christian law group, which allows any students to attend its events on law school campuses but requires all officers and voting members of its chapters to sign a statement of faith, recognizing "Jesus Christ as my Savior," and other basic Christian tenets like "the Bible as the inspired Word of God." The University of California's Hastings School of Law refused to officially recognize the group when it formed during the 2004-05 school year because the school viewed the required faith statement as an act of discrimination. So the Christian Legal Society sued to be recognized.

The district court dismissed the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of the school, but the Supreme Court agreed in December to hear the case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The law school will file its merit brief at the beginning of March, and other supporting briefs will be published then.

The Christian Legal Society argues that the law school has burdened its free speech and that requiring Christian distinctions for the group are in the interest of debate.

"Without such sorting, all viewpoints are blurred," the petitioners wrote. "The Democratic Caucus becomes the Bipartisan Caucus; the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clubs become the Ecumenical Society; and every other group organized around a belief becomes a Debate Club. Each group becomes no more than its own diverse forum-writ small. The all-comers rule thus defeats the very purpose of recognizing any group as a group in the first place. Preventing students from organizing around shared beliefs does not foster a robust or diverse exchange of views."

The briefs supporting the legal group form a fascinating library, from the evangelical to the secular. The American Islamic Congress filed support, as well as Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty, and an array of evangelical groups like the Association of Christian Schools International.

The Christian Legal Society's argument in its brief points to these odd alliances: "Under a proper understanding of the First Amendment, this case is most emphatically not a clash between religious freedom and rights pertaining to sexual orientation. Religious groups and gay rights groups share common ground in the need for freedom of association."

Fourteen states also filed in support of the group, voicing First Amendment concerns for their public universities. The brief included a wry footnote: "The West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw wishes to disclose that his daughter, Elliotte Catherine McGraw, is a student at Hastings College of Law and the President of the Hastings Democrats. The Hastings Democrats were recently notified by the school that in order to maintain the Club's standing as a student organization, it was required to open its membership to all students, irrespective of party affiliation."

The argument date will be set in the coming months.