Class Action Crusader Targets Catholic U

A recent decision by Catholic University president John Garvey to reinstate a single-sex dorm policy at the Washington, D.C. school apparently ruffled some feathers.
The most vocal opponent was public interest lawyer John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who threatened to sue Catholic University for discrimination.
Banzhaf told the Law Blog “that his argument rests on the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations, commercial spaces, housing and employment based on any number of factors, including sex, race, religion and marital status.” According to Banzhaf, “reinstating single-sex dorms would constitute gender discrimination.”
The only exception allowed under the act is for “business necessities,” which means the Catholic University must demonstrate that it can operate the school and remain in business only by instituting a single-sex dorm policy, Banzhaf said. “Given that the university has been offering coed housing for decades, it is unlikely the exception will apply in this case,” he added.
Although Dr. Garvey explained that his decision was inspired by the need to counter the growing problems of binge drinking and hooking up, he admitted that his new policy was “counter-cultural,” since “90 percent of college housing is now coed.”
The backlash against this decision shows how far the left is prepared to go in order to “interfere with religious liberty and common sense,” noted Maggie Gallagher in a recent column on mindingthecampus.com.
Professor Banzhaf’s experience in this area is legion. His website boasts that he is “the Ralph Nader of Junk Food,” the “Osama bin Laden of Torts,” and “the Father of Potty Parity” (for his lawsuits over restroom access), said Gallagher.
To Banzhaf, this ruling is a relic of the “1950s and 1960s . . . They’re going back to the ‘good old days’ when boys were in one dorm and girls in the other. That was fine in ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ but it’s not appropriate now,” he said.
However, the prospect of single sex dorms may actually expand the choices for prospective college students, according to columnist Tina Korbe, who said that it would give “students who might like to attend a university with gender-specific housing just such an option, especially since 90 percent of housing is presently coed.”
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Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

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