The Rutherford Institute is pushing back against the Department of Education’s efforts to roll back First Amendment protections issued under the Trump administration, warning that it could result in discriminatory treatment and double standards by public colleges and universities against religious student groups.
The regulations in danger of being rescinded by the Biden administration require public colleges and universities that currently receive grant funding to treat religious student groups the same as other student organizations. However, Rutherford Institute attorneys caution that without the current protections in place, religious student groups at more than 1,200 public colleges and universities could face adverse action by administrators inclined to view the groups’ religious beliefs and statements of faith as violating the schools’ non‑discrimination policies.
“At times, it seems that mainstream America has become more tolerant toward every social group except those who are vocal about their religious beliefs,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Yet not only do religious students have a First Amendment right to exercise and express their religious beliefs freely and without fear of censorship, but religious student groups also have a right to be treated fairly and without discrimination and in the same manner as other student groups at a public school.”
via wnd
