Expelling students in gay relationships could cost BYU law school its accreditation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints forbids homosexual relationships. So does its premier institution of higher education, Brigham Young University.

These student conduct rules and others could cause BYU’s law school to lose its accreditation, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

The American Bar Association is investigating whether BYU’s expulsion of students in gay relationships or who leave the Mormon faith while enrolled count as violations of nondiscrimination standards.

A group of alumni under the moniker FreeBYU prompted the ABA review. Its Change.org petition to BYU, asking the school to let students who leave Mormonism finish their degrees, has drawn fewer than 3,000 signatures in the eight months since it was launched and fewer than 400 more in the past four months.

It’s not the first religious law school to find its accreditation imperiled for LGBT-related issues: Trinity Western University in Canada has gone to court in several provinces to win back its law-school accreditation, winning in some.

According to the Tribune:

Religious institutions such as BYU have some leeway in tailoring their admissions and hiring processes to indicate a “preference” for people with a certain religious affiliation, according to the most recent ABA guidelines, so long as the preferences are clear before students and faculty come to campus. But the standards may not be used to limit academic freedom or to discriminate when it comes to admission or retention of students. The professional organization of attorneys and law students forbids schools from “taking action” based on race, religion, gender, nationality, sexuality, age or disability.

BYU law school’s next accreditation review isn’t for another three years. A spokeswoman said it’s been accredited by the ABA since 1974.

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