UNH typically gets good marks from groups like FIRE for free speech that, in my opinion, they do not deserve. UNH may put policies in writing that sell a commitment to open and free expression, but the entire campus culture stands on the intolerance baked into identity politics.
Like most universities, UNH is (likely) letting a form of street justice decide what “free” means, the way the groups like BLM and Antifa intimidate while Democrats look away or pretend it is not their agenda being advanced.
This brings us to the Student Bar Association (SBA) at UNH.
First Liberty accused the SBA of acting as an “inquisitor” when examining the club’s application, instead of providing its “routine, administrative approval.” The Christian Legal Society, approved two months prior, faced similar issues in obtaining official recognition, First Liberty wrote, showing a pattern of bias. …
The SBA “viewed with suspicion” the Free Exercise Coalition’s “mission.” The SBA also “fomented public discussion that labeled the group as bigoted, subversive, oppressive, and a general ‘problem’ for UNH,” First Liberty wrote in its letter.
“Further, this shocking, knives-out inquisition of the Free Exercise Coalition’s religious beliefs by the SBA led the Free Exercise Coalition’s faculty advisor to withdraw,” according to the letter.
What is their mission (Article 1)?
The Free Exercise Coalition is positioned to equip religious students in their free exercise of religion, both on and off campus. The organization is an open member coalition of religious students and their allies, all with a passion to see America’s foundational religious freedoms be restored and respected. Through scholarship, service and education, coalition members will have the opportunity to support religious liberty causes on their campus and in their communities.
The statement from their Board (Article 2).
In believing and subscribing to the traditional Judeo-Christian values of our founding:
I believe in the fundamental rights of religious persons to practice their religion, freely and without government intervention and hindrances.
I believe that the Constitution of the United States recognized and enumerated these fundamental rights of the free exercise of religion.
I believe that religious persons may have sincere and religious personal convictions that are unique to that person.
I believe that Judeo-Christian morality is incompatible with the killing of babies in the womb, and that the unborn has the intrinsic and legal right to life.
I believe that the sacred Judeo-Christian tradition of marriage is incompatible with same-sex marriage.
I believe that the Judeo-Christian belief system is incompatible with Transgender Ideology, and that a person is either born male or born female according to the Divine’s decree.
If this rubs the SBA the wrong way, too bad. UNH takes State and Federal dollars and is bound by laws protecting the right to free speech, association, and religious liberty. It cannot legally prohibit a club that meets every other requirement—a notion you’d expect the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law to grasp.
They know better, but they are dragging their feet anyway.
First Liberty Institute sent the demand letter to law school Dean Shane Cooper after UNH’s Student Bar Association refused to recognize the Free Exercise Coalition, a student organization devoted to protecting religious freedom on campuses, despite the club’s adherence to all the school’s criteria for official club membership.
I guess we’ll wait and see what the New Year brings.
HT | The College Fix
