Ted Cruz blasts Yale Law School for reportedly denying financial help to students, grads with 'traditional Christian views'

Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is launching an investigation into Yale Law School and has threatened legal action against it over reports that the institution is denying financial assistance to students and graduates who hold "traditional Christian views," the Washington Examiner said.

Cruz sent a Thursday letter to Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken decrying a new policy the Texas senator said is rooted in an "unconstitutional animus and a specific discriminatory intent both to blacklist Christian organizations and to punish Yale students whose values or religious faith lead them to work there," the paper said.

He added that the policy to "no longer provide any stipends or loan repayments for students serving in organizations professing traditional Christian views or adhering to traditional sexual ethics" is "transparently discriminatory," the Examiner reported.

What's the background?

According to a Monday piece in The Federalist by Yale Law student Aaron Haviland — a Marine Corps vet who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Cambridge — an LGBTQ group complained after Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom was invited on campus in February to speak about the "Masterpiece" Christian baker case.

Outlaws, the LGBTQ group, "demanded that Yale Law School 'clarify' its admissions policies for students who support ADF's positions. Additionally, Outlaws insisted that students who work for religious or conservative public interest organizations such as ADF during their summers should not receive financial support from the law school," the Federalist said.

"Let's call a spade a spade: ADF is a hate group that does not belong on our campus and does not deserve legitimization," another campus-wide email from Outlaws read, the Examiner said.

Haviland added to the Examiner that "over the next 24 hours, almost every student group jumped onto the bandwagon and joined the boycott."

In late March Yale Law announced it was "extending its nondiscrimination policy to summer public interest fellowships, postgraduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness for public interest careers. The school will no longer provide financial support for students and graduates who work at organizations that discriminate on the basis of 'sexual orientation and gender identity and expression,'" the Federalist added.

Gerken explained in March that Yale Law "cannot prohibit a student from working for an employer who discriminates, but that is not a reason why Yale Law School should bear any obligation to fund that work, particularly if that organization does not give equal employment opportunity to all of our students," the Examiner said.

Cruz's letter told the dean that if the school — which he said received federal funds — "decides to alter its position and cease discriminating against religious students and organizations, please let me know," the paper added.

What else did Yale reportedly have to say?

The Federalist said Yale officials claimed they didn't know enough about Alliance Defending Freedom's hiring practices to issue a specific determination about the organization, but Yale officials did say that students working for ADF will be ineligible for public interest fellowships and the loan forgiveness program if ADF doesn't certify that it will comply with Yale's policy.

ADF employees — like many Christian organizations — must sign a statement of faith in which they affirm the Christian sexual ethic, the Federalist added, which teaches that "all forms of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, polygamy, polyandry, bestiality, incest, pornography, and acting upon any disagreement with one's biological sex) are sinful and offensive to God," the Federalist said.

Yale Law School on Thursday didn't immediately reply to TheBlaze's request for comment on Cruz's letter.