InterVarsity sues after SUNY Broome opposes club’s Christian leadership requirement

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has filed a lawsuit against SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton for insisting that its local chapter allow non-Christian leaders to be recognized as an official club on campus.

The 41-page lawsuit, which lists InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of SUNY Broome as a plaintiff, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York on Aug. 21. InterVarsity is an Evangelical, interdenominational campus ministry operating on hundreds of college and university campuses across the U.S. SUNY Broome is part of the State University of New York system. 

Even though the campus ministry welcomes all students of any faith or none in the club, the group restricts leadership to those who sincerely embrace their Christian faith. Ministry leaders are required to lead Bible studies, prayer, worship and teach about the faith.

However, the Christian group was told by SUNY Broome Community College officials that restricting leadership positions only to practicing Christians violates the college’s non-discrimination policy. As a result of the violation, the college has refused to grant recognition to InterVarsity student groups and denied them the benefits that recognized student groups receive.

These benefits include access to meeting spaces, recruitment opportunities, funding, and other resources needed to build a lasting community, according to the lawsuit.

“InterVarsity exists to help students know Jesus, grow in their faith, and build friendships that will last a lifetime,” Jake Sonner, a member of InterVarsity Broome, said in a statement. “Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to be a Christian to walk through our door. We just ask that students who lead our prayers and worship actually share the faith they are helping others live out. A public college shouldn’t exclude us for that.”

The Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm that defends the free expression of all religious belief and is defending InterVarsity, argued in the filing that SUNY Broome is infringing on the group’s religious liberty.

“In the past fifteen years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that religious organizations have a fundamental First Amendment right to freely select religious leaders without state interference. ... But SUNY Broome claims it gets to dictate who InterVarsity chapters select for their religious leadership,” the complaint states.

“SUNY Broome’s actions here not only interfere but also seek to control a core component of InterVarsity’s governance, faith, and doctrine. And in the past decade, the Supreme Court has warned governments three times that they cannot deny religious organizations access to benefits because of their religious beliefs,” it adds.

InterVarsity Broome is a constituent chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA. While SUNY Broome is a community college within the SUNY system, it is locally sponsored by Broome County and operated and administered by its Board of Trustees.

“Telling InterVarsity it can’t have Christian leaders is like telling a Yankees fan club that it has to let a Red Sox fan be president,” Colten Stanberry, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for InterVarsity, said. “It’s nonsense, and it leaves New York students worse off. The First Amendment doesn’t let a public college pick the leaders of a religious ministry. We’re confident the court will agree.”

The Broome case marks the third time in the past several years that an InterVarsity club has been excluded from a public college for its leadership policy, joining Wayne State University in Michigan and the University of Iowa. After litigation, federal courts sided with the student groups. 

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous ruling in 2021 in favor of InterVarsity, arguing that the University of Iowa engaged in viewpoint discrimination. 

"Of course, the University has a compelling interest in preventing discrimination. But it served that compelling interest by picking and choosing what kind of discrimination was okay,” wrote Circuit Judge Jonathan A. Kobes. 

“Basically, some [registered student organizations] at the University of Iowa may discriminate in selecting their leaders and members, but others, mostly religious, may not. If the University honestly wanted a campus free of discrimination, it could have adopted an ‘all-comers’ policy."