Legal Issue(s): NA
Case Description
The Center continues to advocate before state legislatures for bills that would guarantee that faith-based student organizations at public colleges and universities can require their student officers and leaders to have the same faith as the organizations and adhere to personal conduct standards.
The Center submitted written testimony to members of the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee and Senate Education Committee urging them to support campus access bills (HB 875 and SB 106, respectively) that would protect belief-based student organizations. The bills are commonsense measures intended to protect faith-based student organizations, including religious student associations, on college and university campuses by prohibiting public college and university administrators from taking any adverse action against such belief-based student association that requires its leaders or members to adhere to the association’s sincerely held beliefs, comply with the association’s sincere practice requirements, comply with the association’s sincere standards of conduct, or be committed to furthering the association’s mission. Both bills passed out of committee and will hopefully see floor action soon.
The Center also submitted written testimony to members the Utah House and Senate Education Committees urging them to support HB 390. Like the Missouri bills, HB 390 is a commonsense measure intended to protect the benefits of religious, political, and ideological student associations on college and university campuses by prohibiting administrators from denying them meeting space because belief-based student associations require their leaders to affirm or adhere to the association’s sincerely held beliefs; comply with the association’s standards of conduct; be committed to furthering the association’s mission.
The bill passed out of both committees and then passed both the House and the Senate, making Utah the latest state to join the expanding list of states—Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia—that have enacted similar protections for religious or belief-based student groups.
