The Justice Department said in a court filing Wednesday that it plans to “vigorously” defend an exemption allowing religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students, a surprise announcement with phrasing that worried activists who saw it as promising action even beyond what the law currently requires. It was the latest development in a First-Amendment lawsuit, Hunter v. Department of Education, in which 40 students at religious universities sued the government for providing funding to schools with discriminatory policies. The DOJ filing came in response to a motion from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), a group of religious schools whose members were named in the suit, which argued that the Biden Administration “may be openly hostile” to the group’s beliefs and therefore not trustworthy enough to litigate the case.