Lawsuit filed against district that denied anti-abortion rights student group

The national religious right legal group Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota last week on behalf of a student who is trying to form an anti-abortion rights group at the St. Michael-Albertville High School. The All Life Is Valuable (ALIV) Club was denied permission to become an “officially recognized club” because school administrators said it didn’t “support the student body as a whole.”

According to the complaint (below), the ADF takes issue with the fact that certain clubs are granted access while others are not.

“Apparently the Diversity club, the Environmental club, and the Anime club (among others), however, are deemed to ‘support the student body as a whole’ as they were all permitted to become officially recognized clubs,” the complaint states. “The ALIV Club has been relegated to second-class status and is only permitted to meet unofficially before or after school and receives none of the other club benefits.”

The group is suing under First and Fourteenth amendment grounds. “The Equal Access Act, along with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, prohibit governmental discrimination of this type and guarantee religious and political student clubs access and treatment equal to that of other non-curriculum related student clubs.”

According to the filing, ALIV brings students together to talk about “faith and religion, life, abortion, abstinence from premarital sex, personal responsibility, keeping and raising children in the event of pregnancy, leadership, community service, peer pressure, promoting respect and dignity for all others, reading and studying various governmental and political issues, and the attainment of knowledge,” and the group has a “desire to share their Christian faith with fellow members and students through ALIV Club activities.”

Minnesota has seen several court cases pertaining to student groups. In 2008, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a gay-straight alliance in a Twin Cities suburban school district. In 2003, the ADF sued another Minnesota school district that did not allow students to pass out fliers for a Bible-study group. The school subsequently changed its policies.

The ADF also sued the University of Minnesota on behalf of the Maranatha Christian Fellowship because Maranatha wanted the ability to discriminate in its membership as a student group. The university required all student groups to sign a nondiscrimination policy in order to use university resources, and later changed its policies to allow discrimination among student groups’ officers but not in general membership.