Center for Law and Religious Freedom
Secures Recognition
from Penn State University for Christian Student Club
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - The Pennsylvania State University
agreed yesterday to grant DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship status as a University approved student organization. The
University’s decision came in response to a lawsuit the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom filed
against it on June 22, 2004.
The CLS Center filed the lawsuit because Penn State refused
to recognize DiscipleMakers. The University claimed the campus already had “too many” Christian clubs. The complaint, filed
in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleges that the University’s use of a “uniqueness
requirement” to deprive Christian student clubs of the status and benefits of an approved club is unconstitutional. According
to Penn State’s former policy, religious student organizations, unlike secular school clubs, were required to prove to a
University administrator, the Director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs, that they were sufficiently “unique”
from existing religious student clubs to warrant recognition.
Penn State’s Counsel now assures Center attorneys that
student clubs with a “religious purpose or function will no longer be subject to the policy which precludes registration if
those purposes or functions duplicate those of an already existing registered student organization.” The University’s counsel
specifically guaranteed that Penn State will approve DiscipleMakers as a registered student organization.
“Penn State University is moving in the right direction,”
said Center Litigation Counsel Timothy J. Tracey. “However, we will continue to dialogue with Penn State until we’re sure the
University will respect the constitutional rights of its Christian students,” said Tracey.
Christian Legal Society, a 42 year-old nationwide association of Christian attorneys, law students, law
professors, and judges, established the Center for Law and Religious Freedom in 1975. The Center is among the most
respected voices in the religious liberty arena.
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