In today’s Pope Center piece Duke Cheston writes about a recent decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, holding that Davidson College, because it is regarded as a “religious institution” (like many liberal arts college, Davidson has nominal ties to a denomination, but to say that the college is a religious institution is ridiculous), cannot have campus police empowered to enforce state law.
The judge in the case doesn’t like the result, but says that precedent compels it.
I think it’s time for the state Supreme Court to reverse that precedent. The point of the First Amendment is to keep government from adopting religious doctrines. Allowing campus police to enforce laws that apply to everyone doesn’t do that.
