Editor's Note: In the wake of the Education Department's recently proposed rule change, the National Association of Scholars urges the Education Department to drop plans to rescind the religious freedom section of the 2020 Free Inquiry Rule, 34 CFR §§ 75.500(d) & 76.500(d), and instead to leave the current regulatory protection of student religious groups in place.
Read the Education Department's proposed plan here.
My name is Teresa R. Manning, Policy Director at the National Association of Scholars ("NAS").
I write to oppose the Education Department's plan to rescind the 2020 regulations which protect the rights of religious student groups on campus, known as the religious freedom section of the 2020 Free Inquiry Rule, 34 CFR §§ 75.500(d) & 76.500(d).
NAS opposes any rescission for two reasons: First, this religious freedom section epitomizes equal protection under the law since it simply puts religious student groups on equal footing with other student groups. Second, it spares everyone the trouble and expense of lawsuits to vindicate these nondiscrimination rights.
The religious freedom section of the Free Inquiry Rule guarantees protection of student religious groups at the same level as nonreligious student groups. The regulations, therefore, simply put both kinds of student groups—religious and nonreligious—on equal footing, forbidding discrimination.
Because the very First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right to religious expression and exercise, we know that religious rights and religious associations are of fundamental importance in America. Accordingly, students on campus should not experience any mistreatment, disfavor or discrimination when they form religious organizations and when those organizations are active on campus (using facilities for meetings, inviting speakers, etc.). The religious freedom section of the 2020 regulations advances this simple fairness and equal protection under the law.
The religious freedom section also should not be rescinded because it spares everyone the trouble and expense of lawsuits, the only other way for students to vindicate their rights, absent this regulatory protection. Because the 2020 regulations make clear that student religious groups must not suffer discrimination, they obviate the need for students to sue their schools to have these rights recognized. NQ
Litigation is an intimidating, time-consuming and expensive proposition. Students are on campus for only a few years and have limited resources and income. As a group, therefore, they are not well positioned to sue their schools, even to secure rights as fundamental as these.
For both reasons, NAS urges the Education Department to drop plans to rescind the religious freedom section of the 2020 Free Inquiry Rule, 34 CFR §§ 75.500(d) & 76.500(d) and instead to leave the current regulatory protection of student religious groups in place.
Thank you for taking the time to review these comments.
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