In a very significant decision, the Supreme Court of the province of Nova Scotia ruled against the effort of the bar association of that province to force Trinity Western University’s proposed Christian law school to abandon the community covenant that requires students, faculty, and staff to reserve sex for man-woman marriage. Trinity Western had to go to court a dozen years ago to vindicate the right of its teacher graduates to teach in British Columbia public schools, against the suspicion that they would necessarily be homophobic.

In the latest challenge, while the responsible government authorities have signed off on the creation of this unique Christian law school for Canada, several provisional law societies (similar to our state bar associations) have said they would not admit to practice graduates of the allegedly “bigoted” new law school. In the case of Nova Scotia, whose law society and legal community, according to the N.S. Supreme Court decision, actually does have a history of discrimination, the claim was not that TWU law grads must necessarily be biased but rather that the N.S. law society would send a signal of inadequate concern to quash bigotry if it simply accepted TWU law degrees.

The N.S. Supreme Court decision says that the N.S. law society overstepped its bounds in trying to use its authoritative role in admitting law graduates to the provincial bar as a lever to force TWU, a private religious institution, to abandon an internal practice that is perfectly legal. Furthermore, the decision says, in making such an effort the law society simply disregarded the vital religious freedom interests at stake.

Respect for religious freedom requires secular people and entities to put up with values and behaviors they may find incomprehensible and even reprehensible. Respect for freedom requires authorities clothed with public power not to misuse their power to reach into private organizations to compel those organizations to conduct themselves the way the public authorities may prefer.

Judge Jamie Campbell, writing for the N.S. Supreme Court, noted that there was no finding that TWU graduates, or graduates of the TWU law school, were or were likely to be biased against LGBT people. TWU law graduates, just the same as every other law student and graduate, will be bound by professional norms that require fair and respectful treatment of all.

A key observation of the court was that: “Private religious schools are not limited to training members of the clergy, theologians, missionaries, or those who want professional degrees but do not want to practice (italics added). Private religious schools, if they come up to the relevant educational standards, produce graduates fit not just for religious careers, but for any other career in the society.” It is not acceptable for an accrediting or licensing authority, such as the N.S. law society, to obstruct this calling to prepare religious people for careers in society by refusing to extend to the graduates the professional license a career requires, even if the licensing or accrediting agency disapproves of the values of the graduate and the school.