Supreme Court Rules That Jewish University Must Recognize LGBT Student Organization

A Wednesday Supreme Court ruling states that a New York-based Orthodox Jewish university must recognize an LGBT student organization despite their religious values reportedly being inconsistent with the existence of LGBTQ individuals.

The 5-4 vote cites a city anti-discrimination law as well as a lower court ruling of the case that forces Yeshiva University to officially recognize a student LGBTQ organization, with justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, known for their conservative bent, dissenting on the ruling, according to Reuters.

Despite this ruling, the university can return to the Supreme Court again if the university is unable to use New York’s lower courts in order to block the ruling and prevent the school from recognizing the LGBTQ organization, NBC News reported.

“I doubt that Yeshiva’s return to state court will be fruitful, and I see no reason why we should not grant a stay at this time. It is our duty to stand up for the Constitution even when doing so is controversial,” Justice Samuel Alito said.

The LGBTQ Pride Alliance group is the student organization that sought recognition from Yeshiva University in 2019 and who filed the suit in 2021, after Yeshiva’s leaders claimed that they could not recognize the organization after consultation with Jewish religious scholars claimed that it would be “inconsistent with the school's Torah values and the religious environment it seeks to maintain. “

Y.U. Pride Alliance lawyer Katie Rosenfeld called the decision a “victory for Yeshiva University students who are simply seeking basic rights that are uncontested at peer universities,” before saying that “At the end of the day, Yeshiva University students will have a club for peer support this year, and the sky is not going to fall down.”

The ruling breaks with the consistent stance that the new conservative Supreme Court has taken on religious rights over the past few months, including one that allowed a high school football coach to lead prayers on the field and one that allowed an adoption agency affiliated with the Catholic Church from letting queer couples get foster children.