Lawsuit threatens religious college funding

Students who identify as gay and transgender sued the U.S. Department of Education on Monday to stop it from giving money to the institutions they attend. The students are enrolled at or graduated from more than two dozen religious universities such as Baylor, Bob Jones, Brigham Young, Fuller, Dordt, Cedarville, and Liberty—all of which receive federal funding. The lawsuit argues that the exemption religious schools have from federal nondiscrimination requirements is unconstitutional.

Why sue now? The Senate is considering the Equality Act, which would write LGBT protections into federal civil rights statutes. Some LGBT advocates want to add a broad religious exemption to the bill to secure its passage. The lawsuit could put pressure on senators to reject the amendment.

Dig deeper: Read my report in Liberties about the Equality Act.