For the past seven years, I have been the faculty adviser for the Christian Legal Society (CLS) at Vanderbilt University.  CLS has been on the Vanderbilt campus for more than 20 years.  During this time, it has operated in the same way as have other campus ministries. CLS has always been a positive force on campus, actively participating in the law school community by hosting weekly meetings, guest speakers, and… [Continue Reading]

Let’s not be too quick to read too much into Monday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to deny certiorari (judicial review) in a 9th Circuit case (Alpha Delta Chi v. Reed) that applied a nondiscrimination rather than “all-comers” policy to deny recognition to a religious student group at a California public university. Because the Court denies cert in 95% of its cases, its denial of certiorari means nothing about the merits of… [Continue Reading]

Please read Kim Colby’s February 8, 2012 Open Letter to Vanderbilt’s Leaders: The purpose of this letter is to identify a solution to the current impasse between the religious students and the Administration. The letter will also touch upon four key points. First, as explained below, the Administration now acknowledges that no federal or state law, regulation, or court ruling requires it to adopt a policy prohibiting religious groups from… [Continue Reading]

Please take a few minutes to watch the highlights from the Town Hall meeting between University officials and students.  Chancellor Nick Zeppos called the meeting to discuss the University’s “anti-discrimination” policy for student organizations. The first video is 6 minutes.   The second one is 45 minutes of a three hour meeting.  We also have a 45-minute version. In addition, this brief video contains excellent material about Greek Life and the “all-comers”policy.  (Greek Life-2:20)        … [Continue Reading]

Please Read and Circulate to Interested Parties January 27, 2012 Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos Vanderbilt University 211 Kirkland Hall Nashville, Tennessee 37240 Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (615-322-6060) Dear Chancellor Zeppos: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, thefire.org) was disappointed to learn via your January 20 statement that Vanderbilt is abandoning America’s pluralistic tradition by banning religious and political student groups from making leadership decisions based on their religious or… [Continue Reading]

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officials are taking heat for turning off electricity on cellular towers in four of its stations during rush hour on Friday (8/12).  Apparently, the move was necessary to prevent a group calling itself No Justice, No BART from using mobile devices to coordinate platform demonstrations against transit police over the killings of black men. Although some critics have accused BART of using Hosni Mubarak tactics to… [Continue Reading]