The move is the Modern Orthodox Hebrew university’s latest attempt to avoid giving the YU Pride Alliance the same access to campus facilities as other clubs, including a classroom, bulletin boards and a booth for club exhibitions. In an email to students, Yeshiva officials said that ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays the school “will suspend all undergraduate club activities while taking immediate steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court for protection of YU’s religious freedom’. The announcement came two days after a five-judge majority told Yeshiva it must at least temporarily comply with a state judge’s order instructing it to recognize the Pride Alliance while it pursues a possible appeal of the case in the state court system. The judge said the university is subject to the New York City Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Yeshiva University, which bills itself as the “world’s first Torah-based institution of higher learning,” argued that the decision violated its religious beliefs and would interfere with its teaching of Torah values. Supreme Court reverses course for LGBTQ religious school club in 5-4 vote The students’ attorney, Katie Rosenfeld, called the university’s decision to cancel the club’s activities rather than accept the group “a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Miss., closed all public swimming pools rather than comply by judicial orders I stand out”. “The Pride Alliance is looking for a safe space on campus, nothing more,” he said in an email Saturday. “By shutting down all club activities, YU administration is attempting to divide the student body and pit students against their LGBT peers. We are confident that YU students will see through this shameful tactic and stand together in the community.” A spokesman for Yeshiva University did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday morning. (Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, when Orthodox Jews are prohibited from working.) In a statement responding to the Supreme Court ruling earlier in the week, university president Rabbi Ari Berman said the yeshiva would follow the court’s direction and seek “speedy relief.” “Every faith-based university in the country has the right to work with its students, including its LGBTQ students, to establish the clubs, parties and spaces that fit its faith tradition,” Berman said. The school did not say in its statement Friday what specific steps it will take to try to overturn the state court’s ruling that it must recognize the Pride Alliance. New York will force ultra-Orthodox schools to teach secular subjects In a June ruling, New York Supreme Court Justice Lynn Kotler (D) wrote that Yeshiva’s refusal to host the group violated the city’s anti-discrimination law. It rejected arguments that the Yeshiva was a religious corporation and therefore exempt under the law, finding instead that it was an educational institution “first and foremost.” The school was free to recognize the club without endorsing its mission, he said. Coulter ordered the university to grant the Pride Alliance “full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges afforded to all other student groups.” Yeshiva asked the US Supreme Court to intervene this month. He was represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm with a history of supporting conservative institutions. The university called Coulter’s decision an “unprecedented” violation of Yeshiva’s First Amendment rights. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor initially placed a temporary stay on the New York judge’s decision pending Supreme Court review. In an unsigned order Wednesday, the majority reversed course, saying the university should have pursued other legal options before the court intervened. A dissent written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett said it was “disappointing that a majority of this Court refuses to grant relief.” Alito wrote that the court would likely agree to hear the case if Yeshiva loses its appeal at the state level, adding that the university “would probably win if its case came before us.” Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
