On Sept. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of five to four, declined a request from Yeshiva University in New York to block a New York County Supreme Court order that requires the university to recognize the "Pride Alliance" LGBTQ+ student club, The Washington Blade reported.
The opinion left in place a New York state court ruling requiring the university to recognize the YU Pride Alliance, according to NPR. It also forces the university to exhaust at least two other legal avenues in New York before returning to the Supreme Court to make its case.
Recently, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted an emergency request made by the school to temporarily block the order by a New York County Supreme Court judge who had ruled this past June that Yeshiva was bound by the New York City Human Rights Law, which bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, per the Blade.
The university argued that it is a religious institution; therefore, it should be exempt from the law. The school also said that requiring it to endorse the group would be a "clear violation" of its rights under the First Amendment, which protects the free exercise of religion lawyers for the school said in court documents.
The court's order is a rare loss, for now, for conservative groups pushing so-called religious-liberty arguments over LGBTQ rights at the Supreme Court.
Yeshiva University, founded in 1886, describes itself as a "multifaceted institution that integrates the knowledge of Western civilization and the rich treasures of Jewish culture."