By Charles Huckabee

In a unanimous opinion on Tuesday that may affect other religiously affiliated colleges in North Carolina, a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals held that campus police officers at Davidson College cannot be given arrest powers to enforce state law.

The ruling says the state's delegation of such powers to Davidson's officers creates "an excessive government entanglement with religion," in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Davidson is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the court considered the strength of its ties to the denomination as a factor in its opinion. The ruling acknowledges, however, that there are complicating factors in the case and that the State Supreme Court may ultimately have to clarify the state statute involved.

The case stems from a traffic arrest by a Davidson College officer on a street adjacent to the campus in 2006. The driver, Julie Anne Yencer, challenged the officer's exercise of police power, alleging that it violated the excessive-entanglement prohibitions of the Establishment Clause.

A trial court concluded that "although Davidson College is religiously affiliated, it is not a religious institution within the meaning of the First Amendment." The appellate panel, however, disagreed, citing as precedents rulings by the North Carolina Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The panel's opinion notes that Davidson's bylaws place religious requirements on the college's governing board and its president. Among other things, more than half of the 44 trustees must be active members of the denomination, 80 percent of the board members must be active members of a Christian church, and the college's president must be "a loyal and active church member."

The panel said it was bound by rulings in earlier cases that found it unconstitutional to delegate police powers to officers at two other Christian institutions in North Carolina, Campbell and Pfeiffer Universities, and therefore was "compelled to conclude that Davidson College is a religious institution for the purposes of the Establishment Clause."

At the same time, however, the ruling states that "there is evidence in the record to show that Davidson College is not a religious institution for Establishment Clause purposes." Davidson has "well-established principles of academic freedom and religious tolerance," it says, and its mission is not religious indoctrination.

The opinion recommends that if the case is appealed to the State Supreme Court, a review should be granted.

It was unclear on Tuesday how the ruling would affect the nine-employee police department at Davidson, where classes are set to begin on Monday. A spokeswoman, Stacey Schmeidel, said the college was "analyzing the court's opinion to determine its full implications," The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

It was also unclear how many other private colleges with religious affiliations might fit the category identified in Tuesday's ruling. Allen Brotherton, a lawyer representing Ms. Yencer, told the newspaper: "There are presumably a lot of similarly situated institutions around the state that have been delegated the police power in an unconstitutional way, and this presumably applies to all of them."