Of course Duke is a private university–which is why I referred to public universities in many of my posts above. It could be, though, that Duke was trying to behave in a way consistent with our Constitutional rights–until it got too hot for them, financially. I’m not sure what lesson Duke students will take away from this.
I agree with this, but with the reservation that one group may not need the accommodation, and thus (in my opinion) shouldn’t get it. Example: the school has a rule against wearing hats inside buildings. Orthodox Jews and Sikhs ask for an accommodation allowing them to wear their religious headgear in buildings. If I’m in charge, this is granted. Now a Baptist group comes and asks for permission to wear baseball caps with their emblem inside buildings. If I’m in charge, this request is denied.
For a real example, the Supreme Court just ruled that a prison couldn’t prohibit a Muslim prisoner from growing a beard, because they had no really good reason to prohibit it. This doesn’t mean that all prisoners now have the right to grow a beard.