The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1 - 143

Implications of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

nature. In so doing, the Court treated religious
speech as a subset of free speech. This distinction was at issue in CLS as the Court modiﬁed
the extent to which it was willing to protect the
rights of a religious organization.

access to the use of institutional funds, facilities, and channels of communication as well as
use of the college's name and logo. When the
Christian Legal Society (CLS) applied, there
were more than 60 RSOs, including the Hastings Jewish Law Students Association and the
Hastings Association of Muslim Law Students.

. . . the Court ruled that if campus

RSOs at Hastings are obligated to comply
with its nondiscrimination policy. According
to this policy, which is consistent with California law, RSOs "shall not discriminate unlawfully on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sex
or sexual orientation. This nondiscrimination
policy covers admission, access and treatment
in Hastings-sponsored programs and activities" (CLS, 2010a, p. 2989). Hastings ofﬁcials
interpreted this policy as requiring RSOs to
accept all-comers, meaning that they had to
allow students to join and to seek leadership
positions regardless of their beliefs.

ofﬁcials allow some groups to
use their facilities or to meet or to
access funds for publications, then
they must allow all clubs to do so,
including those that are religious in
nature. In so doing, the Court treated
religious speech as a subset of free
speech. This distinction was at issue
in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez
as the Court modiﬁed the extent to
which it was willing to protect the
rights of a religious organization.

CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY
V. MARTINEZ
CLS involved a challenge to a policy of the Hastings College of the Law, a part of the University
of California system, concerning institutional
recognition of on-campus student groups. Acquiring status as a registered student organization (RSO) at Hastings confers on a group

The controversy began at the start of the
2004-05 academic year when some students
at the Hastings campus branch chose to afﬁliate with the national CLS group and adopted
bylaws requiring members and ofﬁcers to sign
a Statement of Faith which required them to
conduct their lives in a manner consistent with
its provisions. At the heart of this dispute is the
provision that all members accept that sexual
activity should not occur outside of marriage
between a man and a woman, regardless of
whether it is heterosexual or homosexual. By
extension, CLS further interpreted the bylaws
as including those who engaged in "unrepentant homosexual conduct" (CLS, 2010a,
p. 2980) or had religious beliefs that disagreed
with the statement.

143

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1

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