Missouri AG weighs in on College of the Ozarks 'gender identity' dorm lawsuit

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is joining College of the Ozark's fight against President Joe Biden over a ban on housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In a Tuesday announcement, Bailey said his office has led a coalition of 19 states to file an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme County in support of the private, faith-based college's lawsuit.

The U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the federal lawsuit in late 2022, saying the college lacked standing or jurisdiction to establish a case. The suit was originally filed in April 2021.

Last month, the college asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. The campus in Point Lookout is represented in the matter by the Alliance for Defending Freedom or ADF.

“College of the Ozarks should be free to follow the religious tradition on which it was founded. The government can’t strip a private, faith-based institution of its constitutionally protected freedoms because it disagrees with its views about marriage and sexuality,” said John Bursh, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with ADF, in a release.

“If the 8th Circuit decision stands, College of the Ozarks could be forced to choose between violating its religious beliefs or risking intrusive federal investigations and significant enforcement penalties. We hope the Supreme Court will take this case to halt the government’s inappropriate order targeting religious institutions and to respect the privacy, dignity, and safety of female students.”

The college teaches biological sex is a person's “God-given, objective gender, whether or not it differs from their internal sense of ‘gender identity.’”

Its code of conduct also states “sexual relations are for the purpose of the procreation of human life and the uniting and strengthening of the marital bond in self-giving love, purposes that are to be achieved solely through heterosexual relationships in marriage.”

The college in Point Lookout maintains single-sex residence halls and students are not permitted to visit the living areas of the opposite sex. The college prohibits "biological males who 'identify' as females from living in female dormitories, and vice-versa."

As part of the failed appeal, numerous entities signed on to support the college, including Southwest Baptist University and the Christian Life Commission of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

Bailey's brief argues the federal directive reflects an absence of "reasoned decision-making" because it does not mention or balance the interests of religious organizations.

“As Attorney General, I will always enforce the laws as written, which includes ensuring that the federal government can’t push whatever rule it wants and run roughshod over religious liberty,” said Bailey, in the release.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that unelected federal bureaucrats are attempting to subvert the law and force religious universities to house male and female students together. This is just yet another attempt by woke leftists to push their social agenda onto students. My office is not going to stand for it.”

General Bailey’s brief argues that HUD’s directive reflects an absence of “reasoned decision-making” because it completely fails to mention, let alone balance, the known interests of religious organizations and its new interpretation of the FHA. It thus fails to consider the serious religious liberty implications of the new rule.

Joining Missouri in filing the brief are Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: MO AG weighs in on College of the Ozarks 'gender identity' lawsuit