The question: Should a private Christian university have campus police with the power to arrest suspects and enforce state law.
The Answer: Hell no. (the court was unanimous)
The police power “is an unconstitutional delegation of ‘an important discretionary governmental power’ to a religious institution in the context of the First Amendment,” Wynn wrote before he left the state bench to join the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.
The state argued that it the school secular – except it’s not.
Davidson, a Presbyterian school of 1,800 students, has generated Rhodes Scholars and consistently ranks among the best liberal arts schools in the country. Davidson and schools like it have well-established principles of academic freedom and religious tolerance, the ruling said.
I’ve never really considered the subject before. Now that I have I must admit I do not understand why anybody would think delegating authority to a religious institution is a good idea. There are churches with larger membership, if that state delegates authority to a small school, what’s to stop it from delegating authority to a megachurch? Can you imagine?
North Carolina plans to appeal. They might as well flush public money down the toilet. Go North Carolina!
