The US Supreme Court has granted an Orthodox Jewish university in New York temporary permission to deny official recognition to an LGBTQ student group. Yeshiva University went to court for an emergency injunction after a New York state judge said the school had to let the Pride Alliance register as a student union, which would have given it access to certain facilities and services. “As a deeply religious Jewish university, Yeshiva cannot comply with this order because to do so would violate its sincere religious beliefs about how to form its undergraduate students in Torah values,” the university said in its appeal. The university, however, offers many courses on subjects other than religion and has non-Jews among its students, the Pride Alliance argued in response. “It may not deny certain students access to the non-denominational resources it offers to the entire student community on the basis of sexual orientation,” the alliance said. On Friday, the Supreme Court, which has a conservative 6-3 majority, granted the university’s emergency request, staying the state judge’s decision pending further deliberation. As is often the case in emergency rulings, the court did not provide the reasoning behind its decision or an analysis of the vote on it.
Religious rights
Yeshiva University was founded more than 100 years ago to promote the study of Judaism and has a student body of approximately 5,000. But it also gives degrees in various non-religious fields such as biology or accounting. In 2018, a group of LGBTQ students formed the YU Pride Alliance and sought official recognition as a student association so they could organize lectures and hold meetings, among other activities. The conflict is part of a larger debate in the United States about striking a balance between religious rights and principles of nondiscrimination. The Supreme Court, which has swung sharply to the right under Donald Trump, has issued several rulings in favor of religious rights in recent months.
