A cert petition that has been lingering before the Supreme Court since last summer raises the question of whether a Christian student group's constitutional rights were violated when a public law school refused to grant it official status because the group excluded gay and non-Christian students in violation of the school's non-discrimination policy. Clearly, someone on the Court is interested in granting cert: the case has been on the Court's conference calendar five times (counting today), but still no decision on cert has been announced. This week, the clerk of the Court sent a letter to the Ninth Circuit clerk's office requesting that the complete record in the case be transferred to the Supreme Court, a step that is normally taken only after cert is granted.
If the Court does add Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (No. 08-1371) to its docket, the debate over the conflict between religious liberty and anti-discrimination law will jump to the top of the list of important constitutional law issues related to sexual orientation. The decision could set the terms for what is increasingly the central philosophical question in lgbt rights law: the extent to which religious entities (or even individuals) should be exempt from civil rights protections for sexual orientation. (Additional background here)
If any decision is reached today on granting cert, it will be announced on Monday. Given that there is little chance that the Justices have fully reviewed the lower court documents yet, however, the case may well be rescheduled for its sixth time on the conference calendar. The Court's next conference is November 24.
Excerpts from the lower court opinion after the jump -->
Continue reading "Will Supreme Court grant cert in Christian Legal Society case?" »
Recent Comments