USA TODAY's Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupic says the court today has agreed to decide whether a state law school can refuse to recognize a Christian student group because the group excludes gay students and non-believers.

Here is her file:

The justices accepted an appeal from a Christian Legal Society chapter at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, which said the society's limited membership breaches the school's anti-discrimination policy. The society claims Hastings' refusal to recognize it violates the society's First Amendment right of expressive association. By accepting the case to be heard next spring, the justices have agreed to navigate complicated terrain on how neutral rules may affect religious groups. In urging the justices to take up the CLS appeal, the National Association of Evangelicals deemed the dispute "an important case about religious liberty affecting the ... rights of thousands of religious student groups at university campuses throughout the nation." Hastings, which had urged the justices to let stand a lower court decision favoring the school, says all campus organizations, religious or otherwise, have a simple choice: If they want to be formally recognized, which gives them access to some school resources and travel funds, they must comply with the school's non-discrimination policy; if they do not, groups may exclude whomever they choose. Both sides in the Hastings dispute say the Christian society is the only group on that campus that ever refused to abide by the non-discrimination policy.

The Christian Legal Society, founded in 1961, is a nationwide association of law students and lawyers. According to its appeal, "Its purposes include providing a means of society, fellowship, and nurture among Christian lawyers; encouraging, disciplining, and aiding Christian law students; promoting justice, religious liberty and biblical conflict resolution; and encouraging lawyers to furnish legal services to the poor." The group opposes homosexuality and "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle." After the chapter applied for travel funds, Hastings officials determined that the group's mission violated the school's non-discrimination policy, particularly religion and sexual orientation provisions. Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the high court to use the case to make it clear that groups seeking public funding and official recognition on public college campuses must be open to all.

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)