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A federal district court on Thursday rejected a suit challenging the right of the Education Department to grant exemptions, as required by federal law, to some religious colleges from certain provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
A group of LGBTQ students and former students at religious colleges sued over the exemption. The students said they were expelled or otherwise discriminated against by the colleges.
Under Title IX, if a college is “controlled by a religious organization” with “religious tenets” inconsistent with the application of Title IX, the Education Department may grant the exemption.
Judge Ann Aiken did not dispute that religious colleges with the exemption can and do discriminate against LGBTQ students.
However, she said, “Exempting religiously controlled educational institutions from Title IX—and only to the extent that a particular application of Title IX would not be consistent with a specific tenet of the controlling religious organization—is substantially related to the government’s objective of accommodating religious exercise.”
