Legal Issue(s): NA
Case Description
Year after year, state by state, the Center sees efforts to use “discrimination” policies as the tool to exclude or defund Christians in the workplace or on campus. The Center has come to the support of our friends at Fellowship of Christian Athletes again in a case that began in 2022.
The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) revoked the recognition of FCA groups on high-school campuses asserting that FCA’s religious leadership requirements were illicit “discrimination.” Worse, FCA groups could be recognized only if they were open to being led by non-Christian students. Meanwhile, DCPS recognized many other student groups that make distinctions based on protected characteristics like race, sexual orientation, and political affiliation.
In 2024, the district court ordered DCPS to allow FCA back on campus on via a preliminary injunction—a temporary win. DCPS amended its policy to permit FCA to maintain its leadership qualifications and filed to have the suit dismissed as moot. FCA refused, seeing that they could easily suffer similar action in the absence of a judgement based on the many merits this case tees up—free exercise, speech, association, religious autonomy, RFRA, and the Equal Access Act.
The case continues. Read the amicus brief the Center filed in March arguing much as we did in our successful 2023 victory on behalf of FCA in California.
