Judge tosses out religious group's suit of UNC-CH

Basis for grievance had been removed

A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit filed by a religious fraternity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after members refused to sign the university's nondiscrimination policy.

The conservative Christian fraternity, Alpha Iota Omega, rejected the university's policy in 2003 because the group's three members wanted to exclude gay students and non-Christians.

The university, according to AIO, stripped the fraternity of its status as an official UNC-CH student group.

Fraternity members filed a lawsuit against UNC-CH in August 2004 to regain their status, claiming that the university's anti-discrimination policy violated their First Amendment rights.

On Thursday, Judge Frank Bullock Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina found that the lawsuit was irrelevant after the university revised its policy in May 2005. The new policy allows political and religious student groups to exclude members on the basis of beliefs.

Alpha Iota Omega was reinstated in September 2005 after a court injunction was issued six months earlier.

Members of the group were not available for comment Thursday evening.

Chancellor James Moeser issued a statement Thursday applauding Bullock's decision.

"There is value in having a non-discrimination policy at a public university," Moeser said in the statement. "Our objective remains seeking to carefully balance our students' First Amendment rights with the rights guaranteed by the U.S. and North Carolina Constitutions."

The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based organization that represented the fraternity in court, expressed disappointment with the judge's decision but said the lawsuit did lead the university to change its policy.

"What was at issue in this case was whether a religious student group was allowed to use religious practices to select its students and members," said David French of the Alliance Defense Fund.

French compared the university's original anti-discrimination policy to a state government requiring the Democratic Party to include Republicans or a Baptist church to allow Muslim members.

The Alpha Iota Omega fraternity, which has only one other chapter, at N.C. Central University in Durham, was started in 1999 as an evangelical Christian group, according to the fraternity's Web site.