Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/09pdf/08-1371.pdf
Page Number: 55

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

7 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

tion, affidavit, or declaration when this policy took effect.

Hastings’  effort  to  portray  the  accept-all-comers  policy
as  merely  an  interpretation  of  the  Nondiscrimination
Policy runs into obvious difficulties.  First, the two policies
are  simply  not  the  same:  The  Nondiscrimination  Policy 
proscribes discrimination on a limited number of specified 
grounds,  while  the  accept-all-comers  policy  outlaws  all
selectivity.    Second,  the  Nondiscrimination  Policy  applies
to everything that Hastings does, and the law school does 
not follow an accept-all-comers policy in activities such as 
admitting students and hiring faculty. 

In an effort to circumvent this problem, the Court writes
that “Hastings interprets the Nondiscrimination Policy, as 
it relates to the RSO program, to mandate acceptance of all
comers.”  Ante, at 4 (emphasis added).  This puts Hastings
in  the  implausible  position  of  maintaining  that  the  Non-
discrimination  Policy  means  one  thing  as  applied  to  the 
RSO program and something quite different as applied to
all  of  Hastings’  other  activities.  But  the  Nondiscrimina-
tion  Policy  by  its  terms  applies  fully  to  all  components  of 
the  law  school,  “including  administration  [and]  faculty.”
App. 220.

Third,  the  record  is  replete  with  evidence  that,  at  least
until  Dean  Kane  unveiled  the  accept-all-comers  policy  in
July  2005,  Hastings  routinely  registered  student  groups
with bylaws limiting membership and leadership positions
to  those  who  agreed  with  the  groups’  viewpoints.    For 
example,  the  bylaws  of  the  Hastings  Democratic  Caucus
provided  that  “any  full-time  student  at  Hastings  may 
become a member of HDC so long as they do not exhibit a 
consistent disregard and lack of respect for the objective of 
the organization as stated in Article 3, Section 1.”  App. to 
Pet. for Cert. 118a (emphasis added).  The constitution of 
the  Association  of  Trial  Lawyers  of  America  at  Hastings 
provided  that  every  member  must  “adhere  to  the  objec-
tives  of  the  Student  Chapter  as  well  as  the  mission  of