New Jersey judges, among the most liberal in the nation, surprisingly held in favor of a college's refusal to allow a gay student club on its campus. Romeo v. Seton Hall Univ., 2005 N.J. Super. LEXIS 197 (App. Div. 2005). This important decision affirms the right of religiously affiliated colleges to ban any student club that conflicts with their purpose.

Colleges and high schools are the battleground for the future. Students, often struggling or lonely, are prime candidates for recruitment by all sorts of movements. Hook a teenager on something, and he may remain hooked for decades.

Over the past 15 years, gay clubs have been promoted aggressively at thousands of educational institutions. One example is the "Gay Straight Alliance," an attempt to mainstream homosexuality that is now in 3,000 high schools from Massachusetts to Alaska.

A federal law requires acceptance of gay clubs and virtually any other type of club in public schools, once one non-academic club is allowed. Upheld by the Supreme Court in June 1990, the Federal Equal Access Act mandates that public schools either allow only academic clubs or all clubs of every variety. The motivation for the Act was to end schools' discrimination against Christian clubs.

Private schools are also arguably required under some state anti-discrimination statutes to allow gay clubs. New Jersey law prohibits the owner of any place of public accommodation from discriminating based on sexual orientation. N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(f). But that same law exempts "any educational facility operated or maintained by a bona fide religious or sectarian institution." N.J.S.A. 10:5-5(l).

Seton Hall University is a Catholic college that operates under the new conservative Newark Archbishop John J. Myers. He made news in 2004 by declaring an award by Seton Hall Law School to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to be "profoundly offensive and contrary to the Catholic mission and identity of Seton Hall Law School, Seton Hall University, and the Archdiocese of Newark" because of Justice O'Connor's support of Roe v. Wade.

Seton Hall University denied recognition to a student gay club. Dr. Laura A. Wankel, Vice President of Student Affairs at Seton Hall, declared, "No organization based solely upon sexual orientation may receive formal University recognition." The college student sued to overturn this decision in court and could not have chosen a state more sympathetic to his position.

The New Jersey Supreme Court had unanimously ruled that the Boy Scouts must accept a publicly gay scoutmaster. Only the U.S. Supreme Court saved the Boy Scouts' freedoms of association and self-determination, allowing them to decide for themselves. It shocked no one, therefore, when a New Jersey trial court reinstated the lawsuit against Seton Hall for a gay club after it had been earlier dismissed.

The record in the lawsuit demonstrated that the Catholic Church, to which Seton Hall belongs, opposes describing someone by "a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation." The Church also disapproves of homosexual activity because it "is not a complementary union, able to transmit life." The record included a letter to the New Jersey Assembly stating that the opinion of the New Jersey Catholic Conference was that Catholic teaching "finds homosexual activity to be morally wrong."

With a religious exemption in the statute and a clear Catholic position on record, the case seemed to be open-and-shut in favor of Seton Hall. But, alas, the plaintiff claimed that Seton Hall had waived its exemption by advertising a policy of nondiscrimination that included sexual orientation.

After the trial court allowed the legal challenge to proceed, Seton Hall appealed. On June 22, the three-judge appellate panel unanimously agreed with the school's decision to prohibit the club, holding that the religious exemption from the anti-discrimination statute cannot be waived, just as an analogous exemption from Title VII of federal law is also typically unwaivable. "Seton Hall's policy 'prominently and unmistakably indicates' that student clubs, organization and associations can only be formed that 'respect the values and mission of the University,'" the court held. For now at least, religiously affiliated schools can remain true to their goals.