Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Constitutional Issues Court: Lesbian Students Can Be Expelled

If they don't take government money, yes. But if they accept any federal support (I'm not sure about state) -- all bets are off and all sorts of regulations come into effect.

So then the question is: can a non-profit organization descriminate?

“An organization is not excluded from the scope of Civil Code section 51 simply because it is nonprofit.

The California Attorney General has opined that, under Curran, the admission decisions of a private religious school are not subject to the Unruh Act. (81 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 189 (1998).) His opinion states: “[A] private nonprofit religious school has as its ‘overall purpose and function’ the education of children in keeping with its religious beliefs. The ‘inculcation of a specific set of values,’ with programs ‘designed to teach the moral principles to which the [school] subscribes,’ prevents such a school from being considered a ‘business establishment’ whose student admission practices would be subject to the Act.” (Id. at p. 195, fn. omitted.) We agree.
Plaintiffs argue that the School, like the country club in Warfield, engages in business transactions with the general public. They note that it sells tickets to football games and other sporting events; at these sporting events, it sells concessions, T-shirts, and “spirit items”; it holds fund-raising auctions and golf tournaments; and it sells advertising space in yearbooks. Nevertheless, unlike the nonmember transactions in Warfield — but like the nonmember transactions in Curran — these transactions “do not involve the sale of access to the basic activities or services offered by the organization.”

[snip

Plaintiffs argue that the School is a business because it charges students for its educational services. However, both Warfield and Curran focused on business transactions with nonmembers. It seems implicit in both opinions that an otherwise private organization can engage in some business transactions with members without the risk of becoming a “business enterprise” for purposes of the Unruh Act. After all, even a private organization must have some source of funding for “the basic activities or services” that it offers. As long as this funding comes from members, it should not matter whether it is called a tithe, dues, fees, tuition, or something else.

The letter of the law might or might not be in question.
The SPIRIT of the law is not..NOT as it applies to the original intent of the people filing the lawsuit.

What WAS the spirit of the law as it applies to the original plaintiffs? This is not a legal question, it's a human one.

My bet is that the plaintiffs sought to force the religious institution to accept their lesbian relationship.

Stupid. Just plain stupid.
If you attend a school run by a religious institution you are bound to adhere to the religious philosophies set forth by the religion and in the case of this institution one of them happens to be that their Big Guy frowns upon homosexual relationships be they gay or lesbian or whatever.
I suspect that their Big Guy also frowns upon too much of a bond relationship of the heterosexual type as well, within the confines of the educational campus and religious sanctuary.

Basically what we have here is a dismissal for breach of good conduct, whether or not said breach of conduct was named or addressed in the legal proceedings. The girls sought to force the church to accept them as lesbian students at the church school and the church school's position was
"No EFFING WAY not in a thousand years, go to another school!"

Yeah...pretty much.
Sounds logical to me.
Even though I happen to believe that homosexuals, be they gay or lesbian, should be afforded the same rights and liberties as anyone else, they should NOT be allowed to force a church to modify their religious philosophy.

The moment you legislate the right to force a church, or a church school, to modify their religious philosophy, you open the door to your OWN church being forced to do the same.

And no one wants that, not here, not anywhere else.
It wouldn't be pretty.

For me, if the school is a religious institution they should be able to discriminate, as stupid as that is.