In article <thj9hm$2ptvn$3@news.mixmin.net>
<governor.swill@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Good! It's about time people started fighting back against FORCED ACCEPTANCE of queers.
>

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did something Wednesday
justices almost never do. He announced how the court would rule
in a future case.

Alito made the stunning pronouncement that if Yeshiva University
loses to the YU Pride Alliance in New York state courts, the
Supreme Court will �likely� take the case and �Yeshiva would
likely win.�

That is the big news, not the court�s procedural decision to
postpone intervening until Yeshiva has exhausted state-court
remedies. Alito�s prediction should buoy the hopes of believers
everywhere, no matter their religion.

Christianity is 2,000 years old, and Jewish teachings are even
older. LGBTQ advocates are demanding these faiths change their
tenets overnight to accommodate gay rights, and many politicians
agree. The court�s view is: not so fast.

LGBTQ advocates sued Yeshiva to compel it to recognize the YU
Pride Alliance as a university club with funding and listing in
school publications. Yeshiva refused, explaining that its
mission �is to instill Torah values in its students.� Yeshiva
welcomes LGBTQ students, but it will not put the university�s
imprimatur on clubs or activities � such as gambling, video
games or sex outside traditional marriage � that violate
timeless Torah values.

A New York state trial court in June ordered Yeshiva to
recognize the club. Yeshiva asked the US Supreme Court to
intervene. On Wednesday, the justices voted 5-4 to hold off
until the university has exhausted all avenues at the state
level. The vote was widely reported as a defeat for Yeshiva.
Only in the short run. It was a procedural victory for YU Pride
Alliance (and federalism), but it will be short-lived.

Alito, penning a dissent that Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil
Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett joined, laid the groundwork for
the university�s ultimate victory on the merits.

He asked: �Does the First Amendment permit a State to force a
Jewish school to instruct its students in accordance with an
interpretation of the Torah that the school . . . has concluded
is incorrect?� The answer, he said, �is surely �no.��

Alito�s prediction is important news for Christian colleges and
universities across America facing similar legal challenges.

The American Civil Liberties Union invariably sides with LGBTQ
advocates, claiming they�re battling intolerant people who use
religion as an excuse to discriminate.

The ACLU is wrong. The battle isn�t about a single right; it�s
about two: the right of LGBTQ individuals to be protected from
bias and the First Amendment right of all Americans to practice
their religion.

To protect religious freedom, the federal Department of
Education has routinely granted exemptions to religious colleges
and universities to practice their religious tenets, even when
they conflict with LGBTQ rights protected under Title IX.

The exemption applies to 120 of the 5,300 institutions of higher
education in America � leaving LGBTQ rights protected on the
vast majority of campuses and LGBTQ students free to choose them.

The Religious Exemption Accountability Project, an advocacy
group, is suing to overturn exemptions. The Biden administration
has also launched civil-rights investigations against several of
the colleges.

Some Christian schools are modifying their codes of conduct,
reports the American Bar Association, by lifting their ban on
same-sex dating while continuing to bar all sex outside
traditional marriage. Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council
for Christian Colleges and Universities, has urged members to
find �common ground� with LGBTQ advocates without abandoning
their key beliefs.

These Christian colleges and universities are siding with
Yeshiva. Their fates are linked. At stake is the freedom to
teach religious beliefs on a campus that puts them into practice.

Advocating for LGBTQ rights is popular, while the left considers
religious rights second-class. But the Supreme Court is poised
to correct that. The court�s majority apparently understands
what politicians ignore: When it comes to rights, you can�t pick
and choose. All rights have to be protected to have a free
society, not just rights popular at the moment.

The court�s duty, wrote Alito, �is to stand up for the
Constitution even when doing so is controversial.�

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.

Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey

https://nypost.com/2022/09/15/alitos-dissent-in-yeshiva-case-
bodes-well-for-school-and-religious-freedom/