BYU receives federal money which means they should be playing by federal rules.
If they want to impose religious dogma on their students or demand students live by their religious dogma then no federal money. Simple concept of separation between church and state.
I think having your cake and eating it too applies here.
emphasis mine
Nonsense.
The reason Brandon Davies was suspended by BYU was because he violated an honor code that he had previously agreed to adhere to.
That code may take religious morality as its precedent, but the code in and of itself isn't religious.
So the principal of entanglement doesn't even enter the picture here.
If it did, there is no law that outright prohibits the U.S. government from consorting with religious organizations (the Constitution prohibits the establishment of a national religion, nothing more) so any time this comes up it boils down to a matter of interpretation and the courts look at the degree to which the government's involvement with a religious organization might violate the "spirit" of the law.
When this issue relates to legislation, a much more formal involvement than simply funding some research, the SCOTUS in Lemon v. Kurtzman established what is called the "Lemon Test".
Interpreted for the purposes of non-legislative funding of research by an executive agency of the government the test would look something like the following:
1. Does the funding result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religious affairs?
2. Does the funding advance or inhibit religious practice?
3. Does the funding have a secular purpose?
In so far as research funding from the ONR and NSF is concerned, I think that we have to answer an absolute yes to the third point.
In respect to point number two, we're not discussing the government funding anything related to religious
practice. At worst we're talking about religious morality, which is very different than religious practice.
The first point is really the only gray area. It really comes down to a subjective interpretation of the word "excessive". Personally, I don't think thhat funding scientific research at a private religious school is an "excessive" entanglement between government and religion.
You might feel differently, and if you do you're certainly welcome to sue the government.
I doubt you'd get very far.
