Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed Friday night to temporarily block a lower court ruling that required Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ student club “Pride Alliance.”
The order from Sotomayor — who has jurisdiction over the lower court in the case — suggested the full Supreme Court is still considering the issue and will issue a more permanent order later.
For now, the university is temporarily shielded from having to recognize the group.
The case is complicated by threshold issues — such as the fact that New York state appeals courts have yet to rule on the merits of the dispute — that could slow the court’s deliberations.
Former and current students at the university brought the original challenge, arguing that the school’s post violated a New York public accommodations law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The case is the latest religious freedom dispute to come before the Supreme Court.
Last term, the court’s conservative majority ruled in favor of religious conservatives in two separate disputes, and in 2021, the court sided with a Catholic foster care agency that refused to consider same-sex couples as potential foster parents.
Justice Samuel Alito has repeatedly called for greater protections for the free exercise of religion, including in a July speech in Rome. “Religious freedom is under attack in many places,” Alito said.
Yeshiva lost at the lower court level when a judge focused on whether the University qualified as a religious institution within the meaning of the New York Human Rights Act, a public accommodation regulation that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. The law specifically excludes certain religious corporations, and Yeshiva argued that it falls within the exception.
The court noted, however, that under an amendment to the school’s charter passed in 1967, the university is considered an “educational corporation.”
“The Yeshiva’s organizational documents do not expressly indicate that the Yeshiva has a religious purpose,” Judge Lynn R. Kotler said in holding that the Yeshiva is not exempt from the law.
The court also rejected the school’s claims that the NYCHRL violates Yeshiva’s First Amendment Rights by holding that the Public Accommodations Act is a neutral law with general application to all parties.
“It is not aimed at religious practice, its purpose is to prevent discrimination, and it applies equally to all places of public accommodation except those expressly exempted as distinctly private or religious corporations organized under educational or religious law,” Kotler wrote. .
The judge said the challengers sought “equal access” and that the school “does not need to make a statement supporting a particular view”. Kotler also noted that some of Yeshiva’s graduate schools allow LGBTQ groups, undermining the university’s arguments.
In court papers filed with the Supreme Court, the school argued that the lower court’s opinion represented an “unprecedented intrusion into Yeshiva’s ecclesiastical autonomy” and argued that as “a deeply religious Jewish university, Yeshiva cannot comply with this order, because to do so would violate his sincere religious convictions about how to mold his undergraduates in Torah values.”
Attorneys for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who represent Yeshiva, said the lower court’s decision is an “unprecedented” intrusion into the University’s religious beliefs and a clear violation of Yeshiva’s First Amendment rights.
An attorney for the current and former students behind the challenge, who won in the lower court, argued that it was premature for the Supreme Court to intervene because New York’s appeals courts have not yet ruled on the merits and the state law issue has not has been fully resolved.
“Applicants are not only bypassing the entire state appeals process, but they are also pushing the Court to address both novel and weighty First Amendment questions without the benefit of full briefing or oral argument,” attorney Katherine Rosenfeld told the justices in court. papers.
Rosenfeld said the lower court ruling “simply requires” the University to grant the Pride Alliance access to the same facilities and privileges as “87 other recognized student groups.”
“This decision does not affect the University’s established right to express to all students its sincere beliefs about Torah values and sexual orientation,” Rosenfeld said.
Jillian Weinberg, a student at Yeshiva’s Graduate School of Psychology, told CNN in an interview with CNN that Ferkouf recognizes LGBTQ groups, even if Yeshiva’s undergraduate school does not.
He said Ferkauf faculty and students are “concerned about the damage that President Ari Berman’s actions will do to the mental health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ students and faculty.”
The New York Court of Appeals agreed to hear an appeal of the decision this fall, but declined to put the lower court’s ruling on hold, prompting school officials to file a petition with the high court.
This story has been updated with additional details.
