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Moody Bible Institute is suing the public school system, alleging religious discrimination
A Christian college, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, continues to be excluded from the Chicago Public Schools student teacher program after suing for religious discrimination, the college’s lawyer told The College Fix.
In an exclusive interview, senior counsel on the case Jeremiah Galus said that as of Jan. 7, Chicago Public Schools still wasn’t allowing Moody’s student teachers to work in its schools.
“Excluding Moody from a public student-teaching program solely because of its religious beliefs violates the First Amendment and serves no one — especially students and families who need more well-prepared teachers,” Galus, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Fix recently.
However, he also said that Moody’s elementary education program, which is at the center of the lawsuit, is still active.
Attorneys with ADF filed the federal lawsuit in November on behalf of Moody, alleging that the Chicago Board of Education’s student-teacher program is “unlawful” because it would force the Christian college to “surrender [its] legal rights to make [its] own employment decisions based on religious faith.”
“Religious nonprofits have the right to be religious, and Moody Bible Institute has the right to hire faculty and staff who share and live out their faith,” Galus told The Fix.
The public school system also is facing U.S. Congressional scrutiny.
In a December letter, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Republican from Michigan, pressed Chicago Public Schools for answers about the lawsuit and its interactions with Moody, The Fix previously reported. Walberg chairs the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Walberg’s spokesperson Sara Robertson told The Fix on Tuesday that the public school system recently responded to the congressman’s letter, and his office is currently reviewing the response.
“Next steps will depend on what our team finds during the review process. We also are monitoring the litigation that Moody has against CPS on this topic,” Robertson said in an email.
Moody began offering a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education in 2024. However, according to an ADF news release, Chicago public school leaders refused to employ Moody’s student teachers unless the college abandons its religious hiring practices by complying with the school district’s non-discrimination policy.
“Specifically, Chicago Public Schools insists that Moody sign two agreements that contain provisions prohibiting Moody from employing only those who share its religious beliefs and agree to comply with its standards of Christian conduct,” the lawsuit claims.
This would force the college to hire employees that “disagree with Moody’s core mission and biblical values,” according to ADF.
In July 2025, Moody asked the public school system to revise the policy, but school leaders refused, according to the lawsuit
Chicago Public Schools responded that it could not “accommodate language that permits discrimination” because “CPS maintains a strict district-wide non-discrimination policy,” according to the lawsuit.
It also stated that its policy is “based on constitutionally and federally protected categories, including religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity (encompassing gender identity and expression).”
In the lawsuit, Moody alleges the school district violated its First Amendment rights and the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The lawsuit cites previous U.S. Supreme Court precedents like Carson v. Makin (2022) and Trinity Luther v. Comer (2017), which hold that “the government cannot exclude religious observers from otherwise available public benefits based on their religious character or exercise.”
Moody claims in the lawsuit that its employees are “ambassadors” for Christianity to the world. Therefore, the college requires that each employee has “committed his or her life to Jesus Christ and Christian service.”
Moody’s beliefs include that there is only male and female, marriage is a “monogamous, permanent, committed relationship between a male and a female,” and any sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful, as outlined in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the federal courts to declare that the Chicago Board of Education violated Moody’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that Chicago Public Schools cannot enforce its policy that excludes religious institutions from the student-teacher program due to their faith-based employment practices.
The Fix reached out to Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Communications for comment on the lawsuit three times over the past two weeks, but no one responded.
MORE: U.S. House leader questions Chicago schools’ exclusion of Christian student teachers
