Gonzaga University: Refusal to Recognize Christian Pro-Life Club

Case Materials

• "Gonzaga Law School Rejects Yet Another Christian Group," FIRE Press Release, March 10, 2004: Since the fall of 2003, FIRE has been defending the Christian Pro-Life Caucus at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. It now has come to light that yet another Christian group, the Christian Legal Society, also failed to gain recognition from the law school's Student Bar Association (SBA). The Christian Pro-Life Law Caucus had been rejected as an official student group last fall, when SBA president Albert Guadagno declared that the Christian group's requirement that its leadership be Christian was "discriminatory." Gonzaga's president, Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., has failed to intervene on behalf of either group despite Gonzaga Law's promise to be a "welcoming environment for students of all religious backgrounds or secular moral traditions."
• "Gonzaga Law School Bans Christian Pro-Life Group, Calling Christian Leadership Requirement ‘Discriminatory’," FIRE Press Release, December 22, 2003: Gonzaga University's president, himself a Jesuit priest, has permitted the School of Law's Student Bar Association (SBA) to deny recognition to a Christian student organization for being Christian. According to the SBA, which acts as an agent of the university in the matter of student group recognition, the Gonzaga Pro-Life Law Caucus's requirement that its leadership be Christian is "discriminatory." In addition, Gonzaga, which recently punished the College Republicans merely for using the word "hate" on their fliers, now claims that this punishment never happened.
• "FIRE Letter to Gonzaga University President Robert J. Spitzer, November 24, 2003," November 24, 2003

Media Coverage

• "God and Man at Gonzaga," Mike Adams, Townhall.com, February 22, 2005: Recently, I received a letter from two third-year law students at Gonzaga University (GU) School of Law.  The students described your law school as one that is “secular” and which fraudulently holds itself out to be Catholic. They also stated they had experienced first-hand the school’s trampling of the rights of Christian students.  Specifically, they accused GU of violating the rights of their first Christian pro-life group.
• "No Myth: Conservatives in Academia Suffer Discrimination," Mark Finkelstein, The Cornell Daily Sun, October 15, 2004: In a recent Sun column, ("Reclaim Your Victimhood," Sept. 24), Danny Pearlstein, skeptical of the notion that conservatives in academia suffer discrimination, challenged conservatives "to send me concrete instances" of such. As the French would say, "chiche!" -- dare accepted.  
• "Gonzaga Law School Denies Another Christian Group Recognition," Jim Brown, AgapePress, March 15, 2004: A Catholic law school in Washington State is being accused of stifling religious freedom by rejecting yet another Christian student group on campus.
• "Catholic school rejects Christian Group," WorldNetDaily, March 11, 2004: A private Catholic law school's Student Bar Association has rejected two Christian groups on campus because it considers a requirement that leadership be Christian "discriminatory."
• "Gonzaga University Denies Pro-Life Student Group Official Status," LifeNews.com, December 24, 2003: Gonzaga University, a leading Catholic college, has denied a pro-life student group official status, stating that a policy allowing only Christians to hold leadership positions was discriminatory.
• "Gonzaga University Denies Pro-Life Student Group Official Status," Payul Nowak, LifeNews.com, December 24, 2003
• "Jesuit College Bars Pro-life Group for "Bias"," The Washington Times, December 23, 2003: The Gonzaga School of Law, a Jesuit college in Washington state, refuses to recognize a student pro-life group that requires its leaders be Christians, saying the religious restriction is discriminatory.
• "Gonzaga Won't Recognize Anti-Abortion Club," Associated Press, December 22, 2003: SPOKANE - Law student Ashley Horne never thought her club for abortion opponents would be rejected by Gonzaga University, a leading Northwest Catholic institution.
• "Gonzaga won't recognize anti-abortion club," The Associated Press, December 22, 2003
• "Gonzaga Denies Official Status to Abortion Foes," The Seattle Times, December 21, 2003: If there were any place that would embrace her Christian, anti-abortion student club without hesitation, Ashley Horne figured it would be Gonzaga University, a 116-year-old Jesuit school in Spokane and one of the Northwest's leading Catholic institutions.
• "Gonzaga denies official status to abortion foes," Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, December 21, 2003