Agudath Israel welcomed a ruling, yesterday, by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Maxon and Brittsan v. Fuller Theological Seminary. The case involved students who sued Fuller Theological Seminary, after they were expelled for having same-sex marriages.

The students contended that they were discriminated against under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs that receive federal financial assistance. Although Title IX includes a religious exemption clause, the students argued that the exemption did not apply to the seminary, because it was governed by its own board of trustees and not directly by a religious organization.

In yesterday’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the students, stating that Title IX does not require an educational institution to be controlled by a religious organization for it to fall under the religious exemption.

Agudath Israel of America welcomed the ruling as a victory for religious liberty. Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s Vice-President for Government Affairs and Washington Counsel, stated, “today’s court decision upholds the U.S. Department of Education’s position that the religious exemption in Title IX applies broadly to religious educational institutions, whether they are controlled by a separate religious organization or not. ”

Agudath Israel had joined an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief submitted to the Court on behalf of a number of major religious organizations and religious educational institutions, including the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (“CCCU”), which represents some 140 faith-based institutions in the United States, the Coalition for Jewish Values, the International Alliance for Christian Education, and 32 religious colleges. Agudath Israel thanks the Washington law firm of Schaerr Jaffe for being the primary drafter of the amicus brief.

The brief argued that the First Amendment protects the right of religious institutions to be free from judicial and governmental interference, and that the religious exemption in Title IX is constitutionally required. The brief also stated that a victory for the students in this case would force many religious educational institutions to choose between either foregoing federal funding or abandoning their deeply held religious beliefs and tenets.

Rabbi Cohen thanked Gene Schaerr, Counsel of Record on the brief, and his colleagues at Schaerr Jaffe, Nicholas Miller, Riddhi Dasgupta, and Joshua Prince, for their excellent work on this historic brief supporting the religious exemption in Title IX and religious autonomy for religious educational institutions in general.