The Gazette, University of Iowa Ordered to Pay Nearly $2M in Faith-Based Student Org Lawsuits:
Four years after the University of Iowa began vehemently denying allegations it discriminated against a student organization by punishing it for barring an openly gay member from becoming a leader of the group, the state will pay the law firm representing the student group nearly $2 million.
In a pair of judgments from lawsuits that the Business Leaders in Christ student group — known as BLinC — filed against the UI in 2017 and that Intervarsity Christian Fellowship filed in 2018, the U.S. District Court ordered the university to pay a combined $1.93 million for attorney fees and damages.
On Monday, the State Appeal Board approved writing two checks to The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based legal firm that represented both BLinC and Intervarsity in their lawsuits against the public university.
The first for $1.4 million covers attorney fees in the BLinC case — a total that incorporates a 10 percent discount from Becket and “does not include any other fees incurred since the parties began negotiating after the end of July.” The second for $553,508 covers attorney fees and $20,000 of damages in the Intervarsity case.
The payments close the years-long hard-fought disputes that involved numerous injunctions, summary judgments, appeals, affirmations, requests for reconsideration and final rulings. …
“What the university did here was clearly unconstitutional,” according to a July decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. “It targeted religious groups for differential treatment under the human rights policy — while carving out exemptions and ignoring other violative groups with missions they presumably supported.”
The court found that the university and the named defendants — including then-UI President Bruce Harreld and then-UI Vice President of Student Life Melissa Shivers — “turned a blind eye to decades of First Amendment jurisprudence or they proceeded full speed ahead knowing they were violating the law.”
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- Christian Student Group Sues University of Iowa, Sparking Debate Over Religious Freedom, LGBT Rights (Aug. 5, 2018)
- Federal Judge Orders University Of Iowa To Reinstate Christian Group That Rejected Gay Student For Leadership Role (Feb. 10, 2019)
- Federal Judge: University Of Iowa Administrators May Be Personally Liable For Again Violating A Christian Student Group's Constitutional Rights (Oct. 6, 2019)
- 8th Circuit: University Of Iowa Administrators Are Personally Liable For Deregistering Christian Student Group After It Denied Leadership Role To Gay Student (Apr. 11, 2021)
