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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The executive director for the Kansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union testified Monday that a proposal to give religious student organizations more control over their membership actually would allow them to discriminate and still receive public funds.
The bill, which has already been passed by the Senate and is now under consideration by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, would prevent universities and colleges from denying benefits to student organizations that require members to comply with the groups' "sincerely held religious beliefs" or "sincere religious standards."
But, ACLU Executive Director for Kansas Micah Kubic testified that the bill would allow student groups to have discriminatory policies toward women, sexual minorities and other groups and still receive public funds, as long as they claimed they were excluding members due to their beliefs.
Universities and colleges generally allow recognized student organizations greater access to publicizing their events, give them funding derived from fees that all students pay as well as the free use of campus facilities. Representatives of Christian student organizations Chi Alpha Student Ministries, the Christian Legal Society and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship testified that the loss of these benefits would make it difficult for such groups to continue to organize.
Curtis Cole, Chi Alpha's administrative director, said its chapter at California State University Stanislaus had been forced off campus because it refused to include anti-discriminatory language in its group constitution and other chapters had received similar ultimatums.
Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, testified that he believes that the institutions selectively enforce the requirements on religious groups in order to defund their activities.
"The sad truth is that universities use these policies to punish religious students whose beliefs they do not like," Schuttloffel said.
But, Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton from Overland Park expressed concerns that the bill's language was overly vague and could lead to unintended consequences, saying the bill "has more holes than a Swiss cheese."
Jason Long, the attorney from the revisor of statues tasked with explaining the bill, told the committee that the U.S. Supreme Court has not before ruled on how to define a "sincerely held religious belief," and courts had typically taken groups at their word when they claimed their beliefs required them to exclude certain people from their membership.
Dr. Andy Tompkins, president of the Kansas Board of Regents, said in written testimony submitted to the committee that he believed the legislation was unnecessary and could result in universities being forced to recognize and fund organizations that discriminate against protected classes, which could jeopardize some federal funding.
Kubic said that the dispute boiled down not to whether religious organizations had the right to require their membership to adhere to certain beliefs or behavior, "but rather that there is a right to government funding, and I think that that is not a fundamental right protected by the Constitution."
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Online:
Bill on campus religious groups: http://bit.ly/1C2LsDE .
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