From
www.alliancedefensefund.org
Quote:
ATHENS, Ga. — Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund filed suit today in federal court against the University of Georgia on behalf of a Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX). University officials refuse to recognize BYX as a registered student group because the group requires its members and officers to share the group’s Christian beliefs.
“Christian student groups cannot be singled out for discrimination. The right of association applies to all student groups on a public university campus,” said Timothy J. Tracey, litigation counsel for CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “The University of Georgia deprives Christian student groups of this right when they force them to open their membership and leadership to students who disagree with their Christian beliefs.”
BYX, or Brothers Under Christ, is a fraternity of Christian male college students who wish to foster fellowship through their common belief in Jesus Christ. The university denied the fraternity recognition in November, claiming the group’s requirements that officials and members profess faith in Christ is “religious discrimination.”
“The university allows the Young Democrats to require its officers and members to be Democrats,” said Tracey. “Why is it then that the university is telling Christian groups they cannot require their officers and members to be Christians?”
Without official recognition, BYX is denied important benefits provided other student groups, such as access to meeting space and ability to advertise on campus. ADF and CLS attorneys are seeking a court ruling declaring the university’s policy unconstitutional and prohibiting officials from denying recognition to BYX.
The complaint filed in Beta Upsilon Chi v. Adams in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Athens Division, can be viewed at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BYXcomplaint.pdf.
Together, ADF, America’s largest legal alliance, and CLS, America’s premier network of Christian legal professionals, defend religious liberty, human life, marriage, and the family.
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Basically that PDF link says the same thing and describes the process of joining BYX (Affirming your Christian beliefs, understanding the goals of BYX, etc.) Neither women nor non-Christians are allowed to be members, though they may come to any open parties they have.
There are 14 other religious organizations on campus that BYX believes or knows to have similar rules. The university said that under Title IX they were allowed to discriminate based on gender but not by religion.
(Why is gender even in that policy then?)
Basically under Freedom of Association BYX says it should be free to do as it likes.
ETA:
Ok, now I found this
UGA agrees to recognize BYX
Quote:
Two days after Christian lawyers filed a discrimination lawsuit against the University of Georgia, administrators announced Thursday they would recognize a Christian fraternity and consider eliminating the school's non-discrimination policy regarding religious groups.
The Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Legal Society on Tuesday sued the university after it denied official recognition to Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity.
The group was denied recognition, because it refused to sign the school's non-discrimination policy that would have required to the group to accept non-Christian members and officers.
Lawyers for the Christian groups which have successfully challenged similar policies at other universities argued that the policies violated students' right to freedom of religion.
Tim Tracey, a CLS lawyer, told Cybercast News Service Thursday afternoon that the group had received a phone call from university officials "saying that they would recognize Beta Upsilon Chi and that they were intending to amend their non-discrimination policy to allow religious organizations to select officers and members on the basis of religion."
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Sorry, this post got really long.
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