The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the First Amendment right of religious schools to uphold their moral standards, in a decision in Maxon and Brittsan v. Fuller Theological Seminary.

Students who were expelled from the seminary for entering into same-sex marriages sued their former school, maintaining that their rights under Title IX were violated. The protection of students against sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal aid is implicit in Title IX, but the legislation includes a religious exemption clause. Plaintiffs argued that a school must be entirely controlled by an external religious organization, rather than its own internal board, in order to be exempt; the court rejected this argument.

This decision is critical for the religious liberty of Jewish schools, essentially none of which are controlled by external religious organizations. In June of 2021, the CJV joined other organizations in an amicus brief, declaring Title IX’s religious exemption to be “constitutionally required whenever a student at a religious college or university challenges that institution’s decision to discipline the student for violating its standards on sexuality or gender.”

Read more at The Daily Citizen 

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