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In a decision we celebrated only a few days ago, the Supreme Court flipped the script on us.
Justice Sotomayor blocked a lower court ruling that favored an LGBTQ+ from being formally recognized by Yeshiva University (YU).
The school was trying to use a religious exemption to avoid having to recognize the group.
After examining the case, the full court has decided to allow the lower court ruling to stand, dealing religious freedom a blow.
Not All Is Lost
Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts sided with the liberals in this case, but all is not lost here.
The premise for rejecting the case was that the case went right from a federal court to the Supreme Court.
Generally, cases must go through the appeals court and the state Supreme Court before they wind up before the Supreme Court.
Justice Alito, in his dissent, stated that YU is likely to win this case by the time it gets to the Supreme Court, so he was willing to skip the lower court battles.
That, however, is not the process, which was the point of the majority ruling.
The majority decision stressed this: “Applicants Yeshiva University and its president seek emergency relief from a non-final order of the New York trial court, requiring the University to treat an LGBTQ student group similarly to other student groups in its student club recognition process.
“The application is denied because it appears that applicants have at least two further avenues for expedited or interim state court relief.”
The school’s premise for doing this was that the school was entering the fall semester and due to the nature of the curriculum, it wanted the issue settled permanently rather than bouncing around in the courts.
Again, I understand all of that, but if an exception is made here, it has to be made in every case, which is a dangerous precedent to set for the court.
