Oregon college enrollment has dropped 19% in the past ten years. So why is Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum leading a 19-state coalition to appeal Hunter v. US Department of Education to prohibit low-income students from receiving financial aid if attending a religious college. Among all Oregon residents enrolled in college, 16% attend private colleges, and 21.2% leave the state to attend college.

Rosenblum announced that on August 29, 2023, an amicus (also known as a friend of the court) brief was filed with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the class-action case.

The lawsuit was first filed in Oregon federal district court on March 29, 2021, by The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) on behalf of 46 current and former LGBTQ+ students at more than 20 Christian colleges and universities, arguing that the government cannot make an exemption to Title IX for any institution receiving federal funds, regardless of religious status.

The suit, filed by a LGBTQ+ activist group is challenging the constitutionality of a provision in Title IX intending to prevent any students from using tuition grants, student loans, and any other federal financial assistance at schools that operate according to Christian beliefs on gender or sexual morality. The lawsuit seeks to strip longstanding religious protections from Title IX, a law that has promoted diversity in higher education for nearly 50 years. Among other things, Title IX allows students to use federal financial aid at private religious schools that operate according to their beliefs.

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), an international higher education association of more than 180 Christian institutions, filed a motion to be an official participant in the case so it can defend Title IX’s religious protections. In October 2021, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the three schools—Corban University, William Jessup University, and Phoenix Seminary joined the suit to defend students receiving federal financial aid.

Judge Ann Aiken, U.S. District Court dismissed the case and denied the motion for preliminary injunction on January 12, 2023.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Should Oregon Attorney General spend taxpayer funds to appeal a case that will hinder college attendance and drive more students to out-of-state colleges? There is a clear question involving political bias. In Rosenblum’s announcement she blames the Trump administration using rulemaking to expand Title IX’s narrow religious exemption. The rule she refers to was adopted August 2020, which she claims “makes it more difficult for prospective students to tell which schools are claiming a religious exception. The DOE eliminated the requirement that educational institutions advise the Office for Civil Rights in writing if they wanted to invoke a religious exemption… Students ought to know before they get to campuses whether their academic institutions will protect their rights or undermine them.”

Is this a rerun of Sweet Cakes case that deliberately targets religious entities? What college age student hasn’t thoroughly searched out the college website before spending $50 (average) to apply?


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2023-09-17 04:45:26

Last Update: 2023-09-17 22:52:43