Questions to discuss

Observer Viewpoint
Nicole Stelle Garnett, Professor of Law
20 February 2006

"... several years ago, Yale Law School (my alma mater) announced that it would no longer permit the Christian Legal Society to interview on campus. Yale adopted this policy because the Christian Legal Society reserves certain high-level positions for Christians. At the time, I wrote the dean of the law school to object. I argued that a full commitment to religious liberty required Yale to respect the Christian Legal Society's institutional autonomy and noted that the Society's hiring practices were in keeping with federal anti-discrimination laws. The dean - who is a friend and former professor - respectfully but firmly rejected these arguments. He said that it was critically important for Yale Law School to take a "no exceptions" position against all "discrimination." Yale's institutional commitment to the anti-discrimination principle, in his view, trumped concerns about religious freedom in the employment context.

"Yale continues to exclude the Christian Legal Society. I am certain that there are members of the Yale Law School faculty who share my view of this policy, but I do not believe that the policy infringes upon the academic freedom of these dissenting faculty members. They remain free to write, speak and teach about the importance of religious liberty - and to argue that Yale's policy is wrongheaded.

"... That Notre Dame asks radically different questions than Yale is both not surprising and good. Notre Dame has different questions to ask - questions that the secular world will be enriched by hearing."

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