Lawsuit over student fees at Wayne State

[Ed Brayton]

A very interesting lawsuit has been filed by Students for Life, a recognized
student group, against Wayne State University over the denial of student
activity funds for a weeklong event the group wanted to put on. The obvious
precedent is Rosenberger, but I don't know if the facts fit perfectly here
(as, of course, they rarely do). Wayne State seems to have a slightly
unusual system for allocating those funds. Rather than giving the same
amount of funding to all recognized student groups, they have a system that
allows each group to request specific funding for a specific purpose - for
on campus events, travel to off campus conferences, for bringing a speaker
to campus, and so forth. But the by-laws forbid the use of funds for
"political advocacy" or to "advance religion." 

 

So under Rosenberger, are those two restrictions facially unconstitutional?
Or does the fact that it bans all political or religious advocacy across the
board without regard to the specific viewpoint change that conclusion?
Obviously, the case may well turn on a number of factual issues. First, the
request was for $4000, which is a large amount of money for such requests.
Second, has the Student Council approved other funds for events by other
groups that might be considered political advocacy? The complaint says that
the council has funded activities by pro-choice groups, but it contains no
specifics. This could be a very interesting case.

 

Ed Brayton

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/religionlaw/attachments/20080725/ebb79f0c/attachment.htm