Supreme Court temporarily lets Jewish university refuse LGBTQ student group as case continues

• Yeshiva University asserted recognizing the LGBTQ group would violate its religious tenets.
• YU Pride Alliance argued allowing it to meet on campus wouldn't change the school's mission.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday sided with an Orthodox Jewish university in New York that refused to recognize an LGBTQ student group on campus, temporarily halting a lower court ruling that the school's approach was discriminatory.

Yeshiva University appealed a ruling from a New York State court in June that found it was subject to New York City's human rights law, which prohibits discrimination in restaurants, stores and other businesses. Yeshiva asserted it had a First Amendment right to not recognize the group because of its religious affiliation. 

The emergency order from Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor means that the school may continue to deny recognition to the group for now. Sotomayor said the order will be in effect pending a further order, signaling the court may have more to say on the request in coming days.        

"As a deeply religious Jewish university, Yeshiva cannot comply with that (state court) order because doing so would violate its sincere religious beliefs about how to form its undergraduate students in Torah values," the school told the Supreme Court in its emergency appeal. 

The case has much broader implications at a time when the Supreme Court has looked especially favorably on religious freedom claims, particularly in the context of education. Religious schools and individuals have found a receptive audience when it comes to the exercise of their faith and anti-discrimination requirements. 

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Last year, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that a Catholic foster care agency in Philadelphia was entitled to turn away gay and lesbian couples as clients. This year, the court will hear the case of a website developer who wants to deny making matrimonial sites for same-sex weddings. That lawsuit deals with whether a state may compel the developer to create the sites or whether that violates her freedom of speech. 

Yeshiva University educates about 5,000 students every year. 

The group, YU Pride Alliance, told the high court it wants access to the same resources as other recognized groups, such as the ability to hold meetings on campus, to access funding for student groups and to promote its events on school bulletin boards. 

"While Yeshiva University can espouse its Torah values without interference, it may not deny certain students access to the non-religious resources it offers the entire student community on the basis of sexual orientation," the group told the Supreme Court earlier this month.