One week after an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship student group filed a lawsuit against the University of Iowa for deregistering them, the university has decided to temporarily reinstate them. We originally reported the lawsuit last week, which InterVarsity pursued because they required their group’s leaders to adhere to Christian beliefs. While there are likely many things at play, this could demonstrate the power of litigation to ensure religious liberties continue unoppressed on college campuses.
In InterVarsity Christian Fellowship v. University of Iowa, the Christian student group sued after they and almost 40 other student groups were purged by the university, including the Sikh Awareness Club, the Chinese Student Christian Fellowship, the Imam Mahdi Organization, and the Latter-day Saint Student Association were told their requirements for membership were too stringent. The agreement between the University of Iowa and InterVarsity will temporarily reinstate all deregistered religious groups until the end of pending litigation with the university.
In an email, George Carroll, opposing counsel and assistant attorney general of Iowa wrote in part to the Becket Fund’s Eric Baxter (Becket is representing InterVarsity) Monday afternoon. “The University will agree to not deregister any religious student group that has self-identified as a religious group under University policy pending the BLInc litigation.” In another separate email, Carroll wrote to Baxter, “You do not need to file the TRO. The groups will be allowed to participate in the upcoming recruitment fair. They will remain registered pending the status of the BLinC [Business Leaders in Christ] lawsuit.”
While the reinstatement is only temporary, it’s still a positive step for religious liberty on a college campus and shows how litigation affects change. In a statement, Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at Becket, said, “This win is a win for everyone — Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs alike. Everyone loses when state officials pick who leads students in prayer and worship, and everyone wins when religious students can make those decisions for themselves. Here’s hoping the courts make the University’s temporary patch into a permanent fix.”
As of this writing, the University of Iowa did not respond to a request for a comment.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
