STATEMENT TO THE STUDENT SENATE

February 27, 2008 Hearing

The Christian Legal Society, or CLS, is a group of law students who voluntarily come together to encourage one another in their shared commitment to Jesus Christ.  Any student is welcome to participate in CLS’s meetings and activities.  The students who desire to lead the group or select the leaders, however, must share the group’s religious beliefs, including the belief that sex outside of marriage is immoral. 

In freezing CLS’s funding, the Student Senate has apparently taken the position that CLS’s requirements for leaders and voting members violates the nondiscrimination rule contained in FSU Student Body Statute 803.3.  This is directly contrary to the FSU General Counsel’s 2003 decision to accommodate CLS’s leadership and membership practices.

It is also not accurate to classify what CLS does as “discrimination.”  There is a critical difference between discrimination and the right of an organization to protect its identity.  Discrimination is invidiously taking into account an irrelevant trait when making a decision, such as whether to hire or fire a particular individual.  For example, if General Motors were to refuse to hire someone to work on its assembly line because the person is male, that would be discrimination.  Whether the person is male or female has no bearing on the purpose of General Motors—to design and manufacture cars.  However, when the Sierra Club requires its officers and members to support conservation and recycling, the Sierra Club is not discriminating.  The purpose of the Sierra Club is to “enjoy, explore and protect the planet.”  The Sierra Club furthers this purpose by requiring its officers and members to agree with its beliefs about protecting the environment.  The Sierra Club protects its identity by denying membership and leadership to persons who disagree with the group’s message and beliefs, such as avid proponents of strip mining. 

Like the Sierra Club, we do not discriminate when we ask our leaders and voting members to agree with our religious beliefs.  The mission of CLS is to maintain a vibrant Christian law student fellowship on the FSU campus which enables its members to better love and serve Jesus Christ.  We ensure we are furthering this goal by asking our officers and voting members to share the group’s Christian beliefs.  Just as the Sierra Club would not select a proponent of strip mining to be a member or officer of its organization, CLS would not give a leadership position or the ability to select leaders to persons who do not support the group’s purpose and beliefs.

Both the United States Congress and the Florida legislature recognize this critical distinction.  Although Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating on the basis of religion, it explicitly permits religious organizations to take religion into account in their employment decisions.  Florida’s state employment nondiscrimination law similarly exempts religious employers from the ban on religious discrimination.  Fla. Stat. Ann. § 760.10(9) (2008).

Almost every student organization at FSU desires leaders and members who support their organization’s mission and goals.  The FSU Student Boosters, for example, does not want to make a Gator their president, they want students who are diehard Seminoles. 

CLS is not asking the Student Senate for special treatment.  We are simply asking that the Student Senate afford CLS the same treatment that all other student organizations enjoy—the right to require that the students who control our group, the leaders and voting members, agree with our fundamental purposes.

For these reasons, we respectfully request that the Student Senate vote to reinstate funding of CLS.