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Chestnut Hill Asking For Exemption From State Discrimination Laws

by Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chestnut Hill College asked Commonwealth Court to exempt it from state anti-discrimination laws on Tuesday, and the case could have a wide-ranging impact.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission found there was "probable cause" that racial bias led the college to expel an African-American student, weeks before he was to graduate in 2012, in a dispute over money from a production of "Raisin in the Sun."

The college went to court to claim it wasn't subject to the Commission's decision because it's Catholic.

Attorney Danielle Banks bases the argument on a 1988 decision that religious freedom exempted a Catholic high school's discipline process.

"We say the same principle applies here. It's a college. That's the only difference," she said.

The Commission's lawyer Jelani Cooper says colleges, receiving public money, must adhere to different standards, and adds, "those were bad decisions, that students, because of their race, could be treated differently."

Cooper says students at the state's 26 Catholic colleges, including some 40,000 in the Philadelphia area, would lose protection against bias if the court sides with Chestnut Hill.

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