Northstar Legal Center Fights for Family Values

The Northstar Legal Center, a legal affiliate of the Minnesota Family Council, is busy defending traditional values around the country. In a recent interview, Chief Counsel Jordan Lorence provided updates of ongoing cases.

U of M

The center is suing the University of Minnesota on behalf of three students who object to having their student fees used to support groups which advocate abortion-on-demand, homosexual rights, and other political positions with which they disagree. The lawsuit asks the University (CONTINUED)   to change its funding system for student groups so students aren't forced to support groups whose positions violate their political and religious beliefs.

"Lambda Legal Defense, the big national gay rights legal group, is representing the three student organizations we have objected to funding, and Lambda is trying to intervene in the lawsuit," said Lorence, who noted that the student groups are not being sued, only the University. "The judge has not yet ruled on whether or not he'll let them into the case."

Lorence added, "They're trying to intervene to make the argument that any effort to allow students to opt-out because they disagree with what the group says violates the constitutional rights of offensive groups. It's a very extreme constitutional theory that I think will ultimately lose."

Lambda wrote a court brief in a similar lawsuit which the Northstar Legal Center brought against the University of Wisconsin. The center won that case, but the decision is on appeal.

Domestic Partners

In March, the center filed a lawsuit against Arlington County, Virginia, challenging its adoption of a domestic partnership policy which gives homosexual couples rights previously reserved for married couples. The lawsuit is similar to the center's successful challenge of a domestic partners ordinance in Minneapolis.

"The difference is that unmarried heterosexual partners are also included, which I think in some ways makes this more irresponsible than what Minneapolis did," noted Lorence. "When you expand it to include unmarried boyfriends and girlfriends of the opposite sex, you're bringing in heterosexual couples. It strengthens the financial argument. It also boosts the moral argument, because they are totally devaluing marriage by dragging it down to the same level as any kind of cohabitation."

Equal Access

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision allowing a New York City public school to refuse to rent its facilities to a church. This was Lorence's 10th equal access case, and the first he's lost.

The case involved the Bronx Household of Faith, which sought permission to rent a middle school in the Bronx for Sunday worship. The school refused, saying that school policy and state law forbids religious services in public schools. The church sued, but a federal judge sided with the school and the Appeals Court upheld the ruling, saying that the school district's decision to rent to community groups did not create an unrestricted "public forum."

In letting the decision stand, the High Court seems to have contradicted its 1993 ruling that schools which give some groups access to facilities after hours may not discriminate against religious groups. That ruling came in a case involving a Christian group that wanted to use a school building to show films.

"It was very surprising," said Lorence. "It indicates that there's not a solid majority on the Supreme Court supporting equal access precedents they've established. The huge irony is that Nazis can rent a public school in New York, but not an evangelical church having a worship service."