College dorms and 'human rights'

We were not aware that it was a "human right" for male and female students at a private, religious college to reside in the same dormitories. But that strange claim is the gist of a planned lawsuit against Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

The university has decided that to adhere to Catholic teachings, it will restore separate dorms for men and women this fall.

But that has prompted a lawsuit threat by a George Washington University law professor, John Banzhaf, who likens separating dorms for male and female students to separating the races on campus.

That's an absurd comparison. There are practical privacy and safety reasons for single-sex dorms that have nothing whatsoever to do with violating anybody's "human rights" -- and certainly have nothing in common with racial segregation.

There are many instances of real, serious human rights abuses around the world, but a U.S. Catholic school's reasonable decision to have single-sex dorms plainly is not one of them.

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