Professor Michael McConnell weighs in on the challenges Christian colleges may face following the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Friday’s Supreme Court decision that states must authorize and recognize gay and lesbian marriages could create major legal challenges for religious colleges — primarily evangelical Christian colleges that bar same-sex relationships among students and faculty members. Or the decision may not create much of a legal challenge at all. Or it may create challenges, but not soon.

Legal experts are divided. But the question of whether same-sex marriage as a national right changes the legal status of Christian colleges is no longer just theoretical.

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And those colleges, some legal experts believe, may now face challenges to their tax-exempt status or other government benefits. “Private institutions that dissent from today’s reformulation of marriage must be prepared for aggressive legal attacks on all fronts,” said Michael W. McConnell, the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University Law School.