Yet today, Vanderbilt officials are restricting the liberty of the very sorts of religious folks who not only founded the school but whose followers led many of the nondiscrimination battles of 19th-century higher education.

(Editor’s Note: After sumarizing the story, Mr Murray give this illustrtion.)

Ironically, the very freedom Vanderbilt administrators have to make their unfortunate decision derives from a 19th-century Supreme Court case that led to the proliferation of Christian colleges such as Vanderbilt, founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873.

Dartmouth College vs. Woodward originated in 1815, when the Dartmouth Board of Trustees fired the college president, who then appealed to the state legislature for intervention. Having granted Dartmouth’s charter in 1769, the New Hampshire legislature revoked it, instead forming the University of Dartmouth and filling its board with state supporters.

……Back in the early 19th century, Dartmouth College turned to alumnus Daniel Webster in its darkest hour, after its defeat in New Hampshire Superior Court. Webster argued the college’s case before the Supreme Court in 1818, speaking not only for his school but for all private colleges: “This, Sir, is my case! It is the case not merely of that humble institution, it is the case of every college in our Land.”

On Feb. 2, 1819, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dartmouth. Concluding that the Constitution’s contract clause protected private corporate charters, the court paved the way for the founding of myriad private colleges during the 19th century—a large majority of which were affiliated with Christian denominations.

Scores of graduates became leaders in the abolitionist movement, champions of minorities and women’s right to education, world missionaries as well as business leaders and influential government officials.

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Mr. Murray, currently the headmaster of Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac, Md., was president of the Vanderbilt Student Government Association from 1989-90.