In a 70-page ruling last week, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ripped the Minnesota Department of Education for targeting two Christian campuses, Crown College and University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Both of them were targeted because they require a statement of faith for faculty and staff.
Minnesota allows high school juniors and seniors to earn college credit through its program, known as Post Secondary Enrollment Options, but the Democrat-controlled legislature amended state law in 2023 to exclude Crown and Northwestern.
Both schools filed suit in 2023 on the very same day Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law. The case is Loe v. Jett.
The plaintiffs, who included parents of high schoolers, were represented by Becket.
In her ruling, which struck down the state law, Judge Brasel also ripped the Minnesota legislature for passing what she called the “Faith Statement Ban.” That ban, mentioned 46 times in the ruling, is “unconstitutional under the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution and the Freedom of Conscience Clause of the Minnesota Constitution,” she wrote.
Crown College is affiliated with Christian and Missionary Alliance, a Protestant denomination prominent in the Midwest. Northwestern, where Billy Graham once served as president, began as a Bible and missionary training school at a Baptist church. Both campuses can trace their roots to the early 1900s.
Becket attorney Ben Fleshman tells AFN the State of Minnesota blatantly sided with LGBT activism over constitutionally-protected religious beliefs.
“The state, in putting forward this ban,” he says, “repeatedly said they didn't like the way that these faith statements they thought were discriminatory against L-G-B-T-Q students."
Judge Brasel also addressed the defendants’ claim the faith statements violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act. She concluded the Faith Statement Ban is unconstitutional under the Minnesota Constitution, namely its Freedom of Conscience Clause.
