Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/09pdf/08-1371.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  561 U. S. ____ (2010) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

materials as visited June 24, 2010, and included in Clerk 
of  Court’s  case  file)  (Membership  in  registered  groups 
must be “open to all students.”);  Hofstra  Law  School Stu­
dent  Handbook  2009–2010,  p.  49,  available  at  http://
law.hofstra.edu/pdf/StudentLife/StudentAffairs/Handbook/ 
stuhb_handbook.pdf (“[Student] organizations are open to 
all  students.”).  From  Hastings’  adoption  of  its  Nondis­
crimination  Policy  in  1990  until  the  events  stirring  this
litigation,  “no  student  organization  at  Hastings  . . .  ever
sought an exemption from the Policy.”  App. 221. 

In  2004,  CLS  became  the  first  student  group  to  do  so. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  academic  year,  the  leaders  of  a
predecessor  Christian  organization—which  had  been  an
RSO  at  Hastings  for  a  decade—formed  CLS  by  affiliating 
with the national Christian Legal Society (CLS-National). 
Id.,  at  222–223,  225.    CLS-National,  an  association  of 
Christian  lawyers  and  law  students,  charters  student 
chapters  at  law  schools  throughout  the  country.    Id.,  at 
225.  CLS  chapters  must  adopt  bylaws  that,  inter  alia, 
require  members  and  officers  to  sign  a  “Statement  of
Faith” and to conduct their lives in accord with prescribed 
principles.  Id.,  at  225–226;  App.  to  Pet.  for  Cert.  101a.3 
Among  those  tenets  is  the  belief  that  sexual  activity
should not occur outside of marriage between a man and a 
woman;  CLS  thus  interprets  its  bylaws  to  exclude  from
affiliation  anyone  who  engages  in  “unrepentant  homosex­
—————— 

3 The Statement of Faith provides:

“Trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior, I believe in: 

•	 One  God,  eternally  existent  in  three  persons,  Father,  Son  and  Holy 

Spirit. 

•	 God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. 
•	 The Deity of our Lord, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son conceived of the
Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; His vicarious death for our sins
through  which  we  receive  eternal  life;  His  bodily  resurrection  and 
personal return. 

•	 The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration. 
•	 The Bible as the inspired Word of God.”  App. 226.