Yale Law School Bows to LGBT Activists, Blacklists Christian Legal Firms
Yale Law School students who intern at firms that support and defend traditional Christian values will no longer receive stipends after a campus LGBT group complained.
Yale Law School students who intern at firms that support and defend traditional Christian values will no longer receive stipends after a campus LGBT group complained.
And if some students at the Ivy League school had their way, Christians would no longer be admitted to the law school.
The LGBT group known as Outlaws raised the issue after the Yale Federalist Society invited an Alliance Defending Freedom attorney to speak on campus. ADF is one of the nation’s top religious-liberty law firms.
Most recently, it successfully defended Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips at the Supreme Court. The LGBT group was so enraged by the invitation, it launched a boycott.
“In addition to the boycott, some students said people who supported ADF’s position should no longer be admitted to the law school,” Yale Law student and Marine Corps veteran Aaron Haviland wrote in an essay titled, “I Thought I Could Be A Christian and Constitutionalist at Yale Law School. I Was Wrong.”
“You would think that the number one law school in the country should be a cut above the rest,” Haviland wrote. “But it’s actually an environment of intense hostility towards Christians and constitutionalists.”
The Outlaws argued that students who work for religious or conservative public-interest groups should not receive financial support. And the university agreed.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” that he has launched a congressional investigation to determine if the law school committed religious discrimination.
“They’re entitled to have their views of marriage. They’re entitled to have their views of gender identity,” Cruz said. “But […] Yale Law School is not entitled to discriminate against people based on religious faith.”
Cruz said he was also disturbed by reports that suggested Christians should be completely banned from applying to Yale Law School.
“This is the canary in the coal mine,” he said. “If Yale Law School is allowed to implement this policy and is allowed to violate the law, you can be sure we will see other law schools and other universities following suit.”
“And by the way, be clear what their original demand was,” he said, referring to the Outlaws. “Their original demand was, ‘Don’t admit conservatives. Deny them.’ Conservatives need not apply. Christians need not apply if you don’t subscribe to the far-left orthodoxy of their political agenda. They want to bar you from admission. That is their stated objective here.”
Alliance Defending Freedom has won nine Supreme Court cases in the past seven years. It seems to me any right-thinking law student would be doing whatever was possible to acquire an ADF internship.