Yeshiva University (YU), an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City, has been ordered by a state appeals court to recognize a campus LGBTQ group.
The university said being forced to recognize the group, the YU Pride Alliance, would violate its values and its U.S. constitutional rights of religious freedom.
In its ruling Wednesday, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court ruled that YU does not meet the legal standard of a religious corporation exempt from the New York City Human Rights Law.
The Appellate Division also rejected the university's claim its First Amendment protection of religious freedom would be violated. It noted the university has recognized LGBTQ student organizations at three of its graduate schools for more than 25 years and made clear as early as 1995 that such recognition did not mean Yeshiva endorsed or accepted the views of those student groups.
"We find that providing the Pride Alliance with full and equal access to public accommodations does not intrude on Yeshiva's asserted right to decide matters 'of faith and doctrine'" the court wrote.
University spokesman Hanan Eisenman said Yeshiva will continue to appeal the case.
"Yeshiva is disappointed in the court's ruling," Eisenman told The Commentator, the university's independent student newspaper, "and will continue on appeal to defend against the claim that we are not a religious institution."
The case next goes to the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. The U.S. Supreme Court has shown an interest in the case. Last fall, the university appealed to the justices for a stay to a lower court's opinion ordering it to recognize the club.
The Supreme Court turned down the university's request on procedural grounds, saying it had not exhausted all of its appeals. In a dissenting opinion of that decision, Associate Justice Samuel Alito said if the court hears the case, Yeshiva Univesity would prevail.
"At least four of us are likely to vote to grant [Supreme Court review] if Yeshiva's First Amendment arguments are rejected on appeal, and Yeshiva would likely win if its case came before us," wrote Alito, who was joined in dissent by Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch.
"A State's imposition of its own mandatory interpretation of scripture is a shocking development that calls out for review. The Free Exercise Clause protects the ability of religious schools to educate in accordance with their faith.
"Restrictions on religious exercise that are not 'neutral and of general applicability' must survive strict scrutiny."
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