Assistant Attorney General Amy Kunstling Irene argued that even though Davidson has historic ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the school is independent of church control and doesn’t meet the criteria for a sectarian religious establishment that would create a First Amendment problem by maintaining a police force.

• A prestigious North Carolina private college was under the scrutiny of the state Supreme Court on Tuesday, as lawyers argued whether the institution is too closely aligned with a religious denomination to be allowed to maintain its own police force.

The case involves a woman who was arrested on a street near Davidson College in 2006 by one of the school’s police officers. The woman, who was not a student, pleaded guilty to driving while impaired but later appealed on the grounds that Presbyterian-affiliated Davidson’s police force violates First Amendment protections against the mingling of government and religion.

For Davidson, a school of about 1,900 that regularly ranks among the country’s top liberal arts colleges, the question comes down to campus safety, and a lawyer for the school said the court’s decision could have consequences for other religious-affiliated colleges with their own police forces.
“The outcome of this case is of critical importance to Davidson and the other colleges in the state it will affect,” said Bradley Kutrow.

Other institutions with historic ties to religious groups and police forces include Duke University and Wake Forest University, although 20 of the 36 members of the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, which includes secular and religious schools, do not have police forces.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/15/1056241/davidson-college-police-at-center.html#ixzz1Ghj0QMmP

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