The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, is now facing lawsuit after they refused to recognize a Christian student group.
Ratio Christi, a Christian apologetics group, has run into some trouble at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Since 2016, the university has refused to recognize the student group, despite repeated attempts by the students to receive official recognition.
Ratio Christi is a campus organization that helps students learn the historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons to join the Christian faith. The University of Colorado has refused to recognize the group on the grounds that the organization refuses to admit non-Christian students.
According to a University of Colorado policy, student organizations must be open to students of all religious backgrounds. Ratio Christi has refused to accept this policy, choosing instead to sue the university in federal court.
The complaint argues that the university has asked the students to abandon their First Amendment principles by requiring them to drop the religious requirement for entry to their student group.
In direct violation of these principles, the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (“University” or “UCCS”)—applying both its own policies and those of the University of Colorado Board of Regents—has refused to register Ratio Christi. It has refused to do so specifically because this religious organization seeks to ensure that its leaders share its beliefs and that its members support its mission, even though other student organizations do the same. It has enforced these policies to deny registered status to Ratio Christi even though it has granted registered status to other student organizations that include and enforce similar requirements, thereby favoring some viewpoints over others. It has promised to register Ratio Christi only if the group changes its leadership and membership criteria. That is, Plaintiffs must agree to abandon their rights to free speech, free association, free exercise of religion, freedom from unconstitutional conditions, due process, and equal protection to access campus resources available to all other student organizations.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this lawsuit.
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