Judge limits case against UC
Ruling: Students' freedom of religion, speech not violated
By RANI GUPTA - Staff Writer | ∞
A federal judge Friday threw out some claims of a Christian school in Murrieta that sued the University of California system, saying university officials discriminated against religious schools by refusing to grant college credit for some of their courses.
Calvary Chapel Christian School and some of its students sued the UC system in 2005. The suit claimed UC officials trampled the First Amendment rights of Christian students by refusing to grant credit for classes taken at the school.
The suit argued both that the university's policies were unconstitutional on their face and that UC officials acted in a way that violated students' rights to free speech and freedom of religion by rejecting specific courses in biology, history, government, English and religion.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Otero in Los Angeles threw out Calvary Chapel's broader claim that the university's policies toward approving classes were plainly unconstitutional.
The Christian school had argued the university had a policy of rejecting courses solely because they had a religious viewpoint, according to the judge's order. Calvary Chapel argued, for example, that the university rejected biology courses that discuss intelligent design or creationism alongside evolution. But Otero said the school did not show that the university had an established practice of rejecting such courses.
Calvary Chapel had petitioned the judge to rule that the university had violated its students' constitutional rights by rejecting the specific courses. However, Otero refused to do so, which means those issues will now be decided at trial.
For instance, Calvary Christian challenged the university's decision to reject science courses that used two Christian biology textbooks. But Otero said the university officials had provided enough evidence that they had sound reason to reject the textbooks ---- namely, that the books encouraged students to reject scientific evidence ---- that he could not rule in Calvary Chapel's favor before trial.
Robert Tyler, an attorney with Advocates for Faith and Freedom who represents Calvary Chapel, said the judge's ruling was disappointing but not surprising.
Tyler said the claims that the policies were unconstitutional as written are difficult to prove. He added that because Calvary Chapel sought the order, the judge is required to weigh the evidence in the university's favor, making it tough to prove at this stage.
"Although we would have been happy for the court to give us summary judgment on the entire case," Tyler said, "due to the procedural and evidentiary rules that apply, it is not surprising that the court is going to require that we go to trial."
A spokeswoman for the UC system said she could not speak about the judge's order because she did not have a chance to review it late Friday.
Contact staff writer Rani Gupta at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or rgupta@californian.com. Comment at www.californian.com.
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Paul wrote on Mar 29, 2008 8:50 AM:UC properly determined that the Bob Jones University "biology" "textbooks" used by Calvary Chapel were useless. Read Dr. Ayala's detailed discussion of their numerous creationist deceptions and deficiencies if you have any doubts.
Finter wrote on Mar 29, 2008 4:11 PM:Go see the Ben Stein movie EXPELLED,
darwinism is done. Time to rewrite the science books.
Paul wrote on Mar 30, 2008 4:47 AM:I am a UC Berkeley Graduate and a Christian. I predict something like this may happen in the trial. What if the biology text book used for the proposed course in the Christian High School and printed by Bob Jones University were a standard biology text book used at other high schools and approved by UC, but this one is printed under license from the original publisher, with nothing deleted, except this has three short chapters added. One explains some of the scientific gaps in evolution theory that is being ignored many places, One short chapter describes the theory of creationism as taught by other scientists, and one more short chapter describes scientific theory in support of intelligent design.
These students would then know more about biology and some important issues than the students using the original textbook. I know that some Christian Colleges teach all three in their biology classes so their students can function ok going on to medical school or other graduate level scientific studies.
Paul wrote on Mar 30, 2008 5:05 AM:I am a UC graduate and I approve of pursuing this lawsuit against UC.
What if the plaintiffs have a trigonometry textbook rejected by UC because it has some pleasant cheerful scripture passage on a separate page at the beginning of each chapter but it is the identical textbook used at other schools without the extra pages and approved by UC? Would UC be able to claim rejection for academic reasons and that they are not acting on an anti-Christian bias. Can they reject the course because they claim it is inadmissible to mix religion with science? I think that more and more of UC has been taken over by political left anti-Christian activists, and Christians need to stand up to them. I am not sure, but I think they did have one originally. Maybe UC backed down on this one, as it is very obvious they were wrong.
caerbannog wrote on Apr 2, 2008 12:38 PM:
One short chapter describes the theory of creationism as taught by other scientists, and one more short chapter describes scientific theory in support of intelligent design.
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Those would be *very* short chapters (as in zero pages each). There is no "theory of creationism" and there is no scientific theory of (nor support for) "intelligent design".
Beth wrote on Apr 3, 2008 11:06 AM:The university rejected science courses that use "Biology: God's Living Creation" because the book says, "If conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them." What is the point of collecting scientific facts, if you only accept those that confirm your preexisting ideas? Most Christians recognize the danger in that view and do not find real science threatening to their beliefs.
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