Supreme Court Says Washington Heights School Can Block LGBTQ Club

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Yeshiva University in Washington Heights does not have to recognize an LGBTQ student club as part of the school — for now.

The Supreme Court announced its decision late on Friday that the school at West 185th Street can block the club from officially forming as a final decision pends.

“We are pleased with Justice Sotomayor’s ruling which protects our religious liberty and identity as a leading faith-based academic institution,” Yeshiva's president Rabbi Ari Berman said in a statement released by the law firm that represents the school. "But make no mistake, we will continue to strive to create an environment that welcomes all students, including those of our LGBTQ community.”

Sotomayor said that the court would look into a final decision on the matter during its next session.

The decision from the Supreme Court comes after a New York court ruled that the Washington Heights school must recognize the club, and a separate appeals court declared that the university's subsequent appeal did not justify a delay in the university recognizing it.

Yeshiva University, a Modern Orthodox establishment, is seeking to permanently prohibit the YU Pride Alliance.

Here's how the Jewish Telegraphic Agency explains why Yeshiva University is trying to block the club.

"Administrators argue that having to recognize the LGBTQ student group would violate the First Amendment rights of the institution," reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "Gay sex is forbidden by nearly all Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law, although attitudes toward individuals who identify as queer have eased somewhat in many Modern Orthodox settings in recent years."

In an emergency order filed at the end of August by Yeshiva University to block the club following the decision by the appeals court, the school said it could not comply with the order to allow the LGBTQ club because of its standing as a "deeply religious Jewish university."

“As a deeply religious Jewish university, Yeshiva cannot comply with that order because doing so would violate its sincere religious beliefs about how to form its undergraduate students in Torah values,” the school wrote in the court request.