Religious Colleges and Universities

Exemption from Statutory Requirements

Religious postsecondary institutions can enjoy exemptions from some but not all federal and state statutory requirements. Pervasively sectarian institutions are generally exempt from state unemployment laws (Bleich v. Maimonides School, 2006; Czigler v. Bureau of Employment Services, 1985), and church-controlled universities can be exempt from Social Security and ERISA requirements. However, in Bob Jones University v. U.S. (1983), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Internal Revenue Service's revocation of the university's tax-exempt status when it refused to eliminate its religiously based, racially segregated dating and marriage policies. In so ruling, the Court declared that its acting in furtherance of the fundamental national public policy aimed at the eradication of racial discrimination warranted the denial of the federal benefit in the form of tax-exempt status. While the Court has not applied this “fundamental national public policy” rationale to other protected categories, the federal trial court in the nation's capital used a similar rationale in finding that a Jesuit institution, Georgetown University, violated a District of Columbia ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation when it refused to recognize a gay/lesbian rights student group (Gay Rights Coalition v. Georgetown University, 1987). According to the court, although officials did not have to recognize the group because of the university's religion-based opposition to homosexuality, its religious beliefs would [Page 378]not be violated by permitting the gay/lesbian student group to use its facilities and services.

Charters and Accreditation

Religious colleges and universities are like all other institutions of higher education in that they must have state charters authorizing them to adopt rules and regulations. Usually, the granting of such charters is done pursuant to the process of state incorporation, which identifies the broad authority of college or university boards to act in the interest of their institutions as well as imposing state limits on that authority. While state legislatures can impose requirements on the formation and operation of religious colleges and universities, the Supreme Court long ago recognized in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) that states cannot change unilaterally institutional structures so as to alter the private nature of colleges or universities. Nonetheless, states may impose requirements that are perceived by officials at religious colleges or universities as contrary to their rights protected under the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses.

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