Supreme Court Declines Christian College’s Challenge To Biden Transgender Policy
The entrance to College of the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri. (Photo courtesy College of the Ozarks)
The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a Missouri Christian college seeking to halt a Biden administration policy the college believes may force it to allow biological males in women’s dormitories.
Last February, the College of the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development directive. The directive stated HUD would enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination as a ban on discrimination because of “gender identity.”
College of the Ozarks had previously lost several times in the lower courts after filing a lawsuit against HUD and the Biden administration in April 2021.
The lawsuit responded to President Joe Biden’s January 2021 executive order interpreting the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In February 2021, HUD issued a memorandum instructing the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to “administer and fully enforce” the Fair Housing Act consistent with the Biden administration’s interpretation.
College of the Ozarks claimed that the guidance conflicted with its policy of assigning housing for students based on sex assigned at birth.
The college believes the HUD directive “forces religious schools to violate their beliefs by opening their dormitories, including dorm rooms and shared shower spaces, to members of the opposite sex,” an announcement on its Facebook page read.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal nonprofit, represented the college. Its attorneys argued the HUD directive could compel the college to violate biblical principles and traditional Christian beliefs about sex and marriage.
ADF also claimed the policy would force College of the Ozarks to allow biological males access to women’s dorms and shared showers. Otherwise, the school would likely face millions in fines, punitive damages and legal fees, ADF argued.
One month after the school filed its case, U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark of the Western District of Missouri ruled against the college.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld Judge Ketchmark’s decision in a 2-1 vote in July 2022. The panel concluded that the HUD policy did not directly affect the college. It also affirmed the lower court’s finding that College of the Ozarks lacked standing, or did not have a basis to sue.
That’s because the government has never charged the college with sex discrimination in its housing, the judges wrote, “even though (HUD) interpreted the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity between 2012 and 2020.”
“The College has not shown that there exists a credible threat that the defendants will enforce the Fair Housing Act against the institution based on its religiously-based housing policies,” the judges wrote.
ADF attorneys representing the College of the Ozarks filed a petition on Feb. 27 asking the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Nineteen states and multiple Christian colleges and advocacy groups, including the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, backed the petition and submitted friend-of-the-court briefs to the Supreme Court.
But on June 20, the Supreme Court denied the petition.
“The U.S. Supreme Court left this issue unresolved,” ADF senior counsel Julie Marie Blake said. “It is wrong to force schools to open girls’ dorms, bedrooms, and shared showers to males, and ADF will do everything in its power to ensure that religious colleges remain free to protect the young women who attend their institutions.”
Even though the Supreme Court won’t review the case, the college has said it may not follow the Biden administration’s order.
This piece originally appeared at The Roys Report.
Jessica Eturralde is a military wife of 18 years and mother of three who serves as a freelance writer, TV host, and filmmaker. Bylines include Yahoo, Huffington Post, OC16TV.