SCOTUS declines to block order requiring Yeshiva University to recognize LGBTQ club
People walk by the campus of Yeshiva University in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt via Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined in a 5-4 vote to block a lower court order requiring Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ club.
Why it matters: The Modern Orthodox Jewish college had argued that a "government-enforced establishment" of the Pride Alliance club would cause "irreparable harm."
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked the order while the justices considered the case, but the Supreme Court said Wednesday that Yeshiva, which filed an emergency request based on a New York trial court decision, must go through New York state courts first before it can ask the Supreme Court to consider its case.
What they're saying: "The application is denied because it appears that applicants have at least two further avenues for expedited or interim state court relief," the court said in an unsigned order.
- "If applicants seek and receive neither expedited review nor interim relief from the New York courts, they may return to this Court."
The other side: Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, wrote in the dissenting opinion that it could take months for state courts to rule.
- "The First Amendment guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion, and if that provision means anything, it prohibits a State from enforcing its own preferred interpretation of Holy Scripture," Alito wrote.