Tennessee Christian College Sued for Enforcing Ban on Pre-Marital Sex
In 1996, Southeast Tennessee Legal Services sued a Christian College in Cleveland Tennessee for suspending a female student who had violated the school policy forbidding pre-marital sex. Lee College is affiliated with the Church of God and requires students to adhere to a code of conduct based on the denomination’s religious doctrine. In 1992, Melissa Hall, an unmarried student gave birth to a child. At the time, the college took no action against Hall for this violation and she was allowed to continue in school. However, Hall became pregnant again in February 1993. She freely admitted that her pregnancy was the result of voluntary sex and school officials subsequently suspended her for one semester, the standard sanction for the violation. Hall reapplied for admission after having her second child and graduated from the school in the summer of 1994. Legal services then filed suit against Lee College alleging that the school committed gender discrimination under Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments by punishing Hall for her violation of the no pre-marital sex policy. Legal services claimed that the policy has a disparate impact on females because their violations may became known more readily as a result of pregnancy than males who violate the policy. A federal judge ruled against legal services, holding that Lee College punishes males and females equally for violations.
See Hall v. Lee College, 932 F. Supp., US Dist. Ct., 1996
BYU Sued for Enforcing Code of Conduct in Off-Campus Housing
In 1995, Utah Legal Services sued Brigham Young University (BYU) and several private apartment complexes for enforcing BYU’s strict policy of separate living accommodations for men and women. For more than 40 years, BYU has operated an off-campus housing program for single students by contracting with private landlords who agree to enforce the BYU student Honor Code which is based on the school's Mormon beliefs. Utah Legal Services filed a lawsuit claiming that in segregating male and female students in different buildings, BYU and the landlords were guilty of gender discrimination which is prohibited under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. However, a US District Court judge rejected the argument because the Civil Rights Act specifically allows educational institutions to segregate their students by gender. The court also rejected Legal services’ contention that the off-campus housing program amounted to religious discrimination by segregating Mormons from non-Mormons. The court held that individuals could be been turned down for religious reasons because private landlords, in adhering to BYU’s code of conduct, had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for refusing to rent to non-Mormons.
See Wilson v. BYU, 876 F. Supp. 1231, US Dist. Ct., 1995
Attempts to Overturn Colorado Charter School Plan
In 1996, Pueblo County Legal Services of Colorado lost a lawsuit challenging
the legality of a Charter School established by the city of Pueblo on the
grounds that Charter Schools were unconstitutionally discriminatory. This
acrimonious dispute between legal services and the Pueblo School
District began in late 1993 when the University of Southern Colorado applied
to the Board to create a Pueblo School for Arts and Sciences, a charter
school that would use non-traditional teaching methods to assist at-risk
youths. Colorado’s Charter School program, like Charter Schools in the
rest of the nation, allows public schools to develop innovative teaching
curricula through increased autonomy from cumbersome public education regulations.
As such, Charter Schools represent a minimal system of school choice by
maximizing parental control within the confines of the public education
system. The Pueblo School for Arts and Sciences in particular stressed
a high degree of community involvement with a special emphasis on parental
involvement in the school’s activities. However, legal services argued
that in establishing a Charter school specifically designed to “increase
the educational opportunities of at-risk pupils,” the School Board actually
violated the civil rights of those same “at-risk pupils. They reasoned
that targeting at-risk minority students for special educational treatment
deprives them of the equal protection of the laws under the 14th amendment.
A U.S. Appeals Court rejected legal services, ruling that “Colorado has
a legitimate interest in encouraging innovation in education.”
See Villaneuva v. Carere, 85 F.3d 481, US App. Ct., 1996
Wins Right of Homosexuals to Adopt Children
In 1994, Brooklyn Legal Services (BLS) won the right of a lesbian to
adopt a child. The woman requesting the adoption, S.M.Y., had lived
with her same-sex partner, V.B., for nine years. In 1993, V.B. had a child
through artificial insemination which the two women then raised as “parents.”
When S.M.Y. sought to formally adopt the child, named Camilla, legal services
represented S.M.Y. at the pre-adoption hearing where they argued that she
was a “suitable person to adopt a child.” Legal services won a key
victory in its campaign to expand homosexual rights when the judge ruled
that an adult’s application for adoption my not be denied “solely on the
basis of homosexuality.” Citing prior cases won by legal services lawyers
legitimizing homosexual families, the judge said that to prohibit homosexual
adoptions because “the Legislature has only expressed a desire for these
adoptions to occur in the traditional nuclear family” ignores the reality
of the changing modern family.
See Adoption of Camilla, 163 Misc. 2d 272, Family Ct. of New
York, 1994