Federal Court: University in Michigan violated rights of Christian student group
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A federal court ruled Monday that Michigan’s Wayne State University (WSU) officials violated the constitutional rights of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship student club in 2017: the officials revoked InterVarsity’s registered status saying it was “discriminatory” for the group to require its leaders to be Christian. The lawsuit was filed against the university’s board of governors, board members, and administrators.
The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has been part of the University for 75 years and has always been open to all students, the Christian Post reports. Among other things, this student ministry offers Bible studies on campus.
WSU allows numerous and diverse student groups to choose leadership based on a variety of features, including sex, gender identity, political partisanship, ideology, creed, and ethnicity. However, in 2017, the university decided to de-register InterVarsity, and deny it the benefits afforded to student organizations, because the group requires its leaders to hold to the Christian faith.
In his ruling, Judge Robert H. Cleland of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan said WSU’s actions “strike at the heart” of the First Amendment and are “obviously odious to the Constitution,” the Christian Post reports. “The uncontested facts demonstrate that Defendants violated Plaintiffs’ rights to internal management, free speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and free exercise as a matter of law,” the Judge wrote.
WSU officials were found to be personally liable for violating the rights of InterVarsity students and are required to pay a nominal $1 in damages. Moreover, the officials may not revoke the group’s status as a registered student organization based on its “religious criteria for student leadership selection.”