ILYA SOMIN SAYS NO, BUT I’M NOT SO SURE: Does Yale Law School’s Antidiscrimination Policy on Subsidies for Student Employment Discriminate on the Basis of Religion?

Here’s the thing: a neutral antidiscrimination rule that happens to impinge on religious organizations isn’t “discrimination” against religion. However, its is religious discrimination when you are enforcing or expanding such a rule because of hostility to religion (as may be the case at Yale), and being deliberately indifferent to the interests of religious people in a way that you wouldn’t be for any other group with a minoritarian perspective also would be (as may be the case at Yale). Yale hasn’t provided detailed guidance on how it’s going to apply its antidiscrimination policy and what exceptions if any will be made, so we will just have to see how it works out. Meanwhile, the Law School, like all law schools, discriminates on the basis of race in admissions, so I’m not buying the line that principled opposition to discrimination allows for no accommodations for perceived social needs.