A coalition of faculty, students, and staff at Seattle Pacific University has filed a lawsuit against the school over a policy banning people in same-sex relationships from employment.
The lawsuit was filed Sunday in Washington State Superior Court and accuses the private Christian school of “inflict[ing] trauma” on members of the university community by prohibiting those in same-sex relationships from employment. The coalition seeks a court-ordered removal of several members of the board of trustees, as well as the removal of interim President Pete Menjares.
“[The] defendants, trustees of an ecumenical and inclusive educational institution, must be held accountable for placing their personal religious beliefs above their fiduciary duties to SPU and its people,” the lawsuit says. “Rather than protecting this community, defendants inflicted trauma on their fellow trustees and the entire campus. Defendants chose this path in order to defend a discriminatory hiring policy that undermined, and has torn apart, the heart and soul of SPU.”
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The lawsuit claims that the university, which was founded in 1891, had been on a path to becoming “an inclusive, ecumenical, academically rigorous, and social-justice oriented Christian institution of higher education.”
“But SPU has now been co-opted by powerful men attempting to reverse course by morphing SPU into an exclusionary institution that places sectarianism above inclusivity and Christian hospitality,” the filing claims. “These powerful men are so sure of their ability to execute a campus coup that some of them openly proclaim that they do not care whether their conduct destroys the university. They intend to continue down their ideologically driven path of destruction, even if their conduct causes the university to implode financially and structurally.”
In July, SPU filed a federal lawsuit against the attorney general of Washington, seeking to ensure the university maintained the right to “hire Christian faculty and staff” after the attorney general launched an investigation into the school and sought internal records and communications.
The coalition claimed that by filing the lawsuit, the institution was seeking to “conceal … illegal conduct” and had “acted as if they are above the law.” The group blasted the federal filing as “baseless,” according to court filings.
The lawsuit against the school board trustees is just one of many legal challenges that have arisen at other religious universities across the country.
Most recently, the New York City-based Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish institution, asked the Supreme Court to block a state court order that required it to recognize an LGBT student club on campus as an official campus organization.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily granted Yeshiva’s request on Friday, adding that it may consider the case with all nine justices at a later point.
And during the fall 2022 high court term, the 6-3 conservative majority of justices ruled that Maine violated the U.S. Constitution when it blocked funding available for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction in Carson v. Makin.
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The court’s six Republican-appointed justices established new precedent with the ruling, holding that when private people use taxpayer funding to choose a religious K-12 school for their children, they are not using public money to establish a religion.
The Washington Examiner contacted SPU for comment.
