Yeshiva University is one step closer to getting its case in front of the Supreme Court after the school appealed a lower court ruling that it must recognize an LGBT club on campus to New York’s highest court.
Attorneys for YU filed an appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York this week, meaning it will be the third court to hear the case of the Orthodox Jewish university, which has been in litigation after it refused to recognize an LGBT club on campus.
NEW YORK APPEALS COURT FINDS JEWISH UNIVERSITY ERRED BY REFUSING LGBT CLUB ON CAMPUS
In June 2022, a state court judge ruled YU did not qualify as a “religious corporation” despite the college being established in 1886 and considered one of the oldest Jewish universities in the nation.
The university’s argument not to recognize the club, known as the YU “Pride Alliance,” has so far been unsuccessful in two of New York’s lower courts. In September, the college was denied its petition to the Supreme Court for emergency relief, sending it back to the state court to finish its appeals process and inviting the college to return to the highest court again if it would like to “seek and receive neither expedited review nor interim relief from the New York courts.”
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett dissented against the decision, saying they would grant the university relief over its requests. Alito touched on the school’s argument for petitioning, saying, “Unless a stay is granted, Yeshiva will be required to recognize the Alliance as an official student group and to grant it all the privileges extended to other such groups.”
“Yeshiva would likely win if its case came before us,” Alito added.
In response to repeated failures for an injunction in its suit, YU decided in October to announce a new student group for “LGBTQ students striving to live authentic Torah lives.” The club is meant to reflect an ideology that there is nothing wrong with same-sex attraction among YU students so long as religious prohibitions on homosexual activity are not violated according to Jewish law.
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YU is represented by Becket Law, a legal group that told the Washington Examiner in October that school officials were searching for the “correct forum” for its LGBT students to support one another.
“The university has been in communication with its LGBTQ students for a number of months leading up to the lawsuit, looking to find a correct forum for LGBTQ students where they can support one another, where they can share experiences, where they can enjoy recreation together, where they can have events that support their mission,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel for Becket.
