Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Discriminate?

In Iowa, on February 28^th, a bill designed to protect the freedom of speech on college campuses faced a great deal of opposition with the concern it would legalize discrimination. Senate File 2344 defines what is considered protected free speech by specifying that, “’a member of the campus community who wishes to engage’ in protected forms of speech on campus ‘shall be permitted to do so freely subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.’” Those in opposition, found the sentence, “a public institution of higher education may prohibit student organizations form discriminating against members or prospective members on the basis of any protected status recognized by federal or state law,” quite troubling. Iowa’s civil rights code protects people from discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, etc., however with the passing of the bill, there is a great deal of concern that it would open doors to allow student groups to discriminate members because of their race, religion, sex, or other protected statues.  

A provision to the bill was brought up when a Muslim student group at the University of Iowa required its members to be Shia Muslims. Senator Amy Sinclair, the bill’s sponsor, raised the concern that the bill could be applied in a way that would target this Muslim student group because they have that requirement for membership.

This legislation follows a lawsuit in which a student group, Business Leaders in Christ, claimed the University of Iowa revoked its registration as an on-campus organization after it denied a leadership role to a student who was openly gay. This meant the group could not participate in on-campus fairs, use school facilities, receive funding or any benefits other school recognized organizations could. The group claims it did not discriminate based on the student’s sexual orientation, but said that leaders must abide by the group’s religious beliefs, “which include avoiding activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman.”

Sinclair however, does not see the bill and lawsuit being related because it does not stop the University from acting on issues of discrimination, it just protects the rights of, specifically, this Muslim student group.

Senator David Johnson stepped into the conversation, pointing out that the bill is supported by the Libertarian organization, Americans for Prosperity, and the Christian conservative organization, The Family Leader, but is opposed to groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. This could be potentially very dangerous having the main supporters be of such organizations that facially do not support Muslim groups or the religion.

There are a few questions at stake here, the main one being does this bill prohibit the Establishment Clause of this Muslim student group? Also, was the Muslim group in the wrong for requiring its members to identify as Shia Muslim?

To determine the legality of this bill, I ran it through the Lemon Test. Upon first thought it seemed to clear all prongs of the test, however with more thought I began to ponder the supposed secular purpose of this bill. In writing, there is nothing about this bill that suggests it is religiously affiliated, however keeping in mind its main supporters are of Christian faith, I do see it potentially not serving the secular purpose it was intended to. That being said, I do not see a problem with the Muslim group denying acceptance to those who do not identify as Shia Muslim; if this group wants to start a religiously affiliated on-campus club, which the school does not have a problem with, they should be allowed to, and considering they are likely going to practice religion, it its very legitimate to require members to be of the same practicing religion.