WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a conservative group's challenge to Virginia Tech University's policy for monitoring and reporting allegations of bias against LGBT people, racial minorities, religious groups and others, finding the case was moot.

The justices threw out a ruling by the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had declined to block the school's policy and ruled that the organization lacked the proper legal standing to sue. Virginia Tech had urged the Supreme Court to turn away the group's appeal, saying the case is moot because the school's bias-response protocol was already discontinued.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)