Senator Ted Cruz has warned that the leading academic institution, Yale Law School, may be discriminating against Christian groups on campus.
As part of the school’s new school’s “nondiscrimination policy,” Yale may prevent certain students who are linked to religious organizations from receiving adequate funding — such as interest fellowships, post-graduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness.
Blacklisting Christian organizations
Following Yale’s announcement that it would be expanding the non-discrimination policy, Sen. Cruz was quick to follow up with the prestigious school.
In a letter sent last Thursday to Yale Law’s Dean Heather Gerken, Cruz wrote that “(It) appears that the policy arose from unconstitutional animus and a specific discriminatory intent both to blacklist Christian organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and to punish Yale students whose values or religious faith lead them to work there.”
The Senator was referring to a situation that occurred of the back of the Yale Federalist Society inviting a lawyer from ADF to speak, sparking outrage from the school’s LGBT group, “Outlaws.”
It was this group that lobbied Yale’s administrators to re-think its anti–discrimination policy, which was already extensive.
[W]e are asking the Yale Law School administration to clarify its [Summer Public Interest Fellowship (‘SPIF’)] and admissions policies regarding organizations that discriminate against members of its community,” the LGBT group wrote to the school’s board.
Cruz lodged his concern over the indication that Yale would “no longer provide any stipends or loan repayments for students serving in organizations professing traditional Christian views or adhering to traditional sexual ethics.”
Threatening litigation if the situation is not resolved swiftly, Sen. Cruz wrote that “if Yale Law School decides to alter its position and cease discriminating against religious students and organizations, please let me know.”