Diversity and Discrimination at Gonzaga

Here's a link to an interesting story I've been following at the Gonzaga University School of Law. (Note: The link is to the website of an advocacy organization, "Foundation for Individual Rights in Education," with which I am familiar and which I, generally speaking, endorse). The School's Student Bar Association has refused to recognize the "Christian Legal Society" -- just as, a little while ago, it refused to recognize the "Christian Pro-Life Caucus" -- because the SBA president concluded that the group's requirement that its leadership be Christian is "discriminatory."

In my view, based on what I know, the decision by the Gonzaga SBA is quite unfortunate. For "Mirror of Justice" purposes, though, it strikes me that this incident points to a confusion about what we really mean -- or should mean -- about terms like "diversity" and "discrimination." Is it really meaningful to complain that the "Christian Legal Society," by requiring that its leadership be Christian (so as to preserve its expressive integrity), is "discriminating" against non-Christians? Or, do such complaints undermine the "purchasing power" of anti-discrimination arguments -- arguments that, I assume, we want to retain moral force? By refusing to recognize expressive groups like the CLS, on the ground that they fail to mirror in every respect the political norms of liberal democracy, is the Gonzaga SBA really serving "diversity"? Or, is the SBA undermining meaningful diversity by excluding from Gonzaga's "civil society" groups with a distinctive identity and message?

It seems to me that the debate about the treatment of the CLS at Gonzaga connects in interesting ways with discussions many of us have had -- and in which Mark Sargent has prominently participated -- about the place of distinctively Catholic law schools in the legal academy. It should also remind law teachers, I think, that we need to challenge our students and each other to think carefully about what discrimination *is*, given that the task of eradicating invidious discrimination (as opposed to religious associations) is one that we, as lawyers, are particularly called to perform.

Rick