Have You Seen This Ad???

Author: ADF Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel Counsel Jordan Lorence

Have you seen this ad on your campus? Students pay mandatory student fees under school policies, but these same policies deny funding to one type of student group at six major universities (and probably more):

• VA Tech 
• Penn State
• William and Mary School of Law
• University of Michigan
• Old Dominion University
• Colorado State University

 Why do these universities exclude certain student groups from getting money? Are they destroying campus property? Did all of their members drop below a certain GPA? Does no one show up to their meetings? No, it’s simpler than that. In a forum open to every other type of student group, these student groups are denied funding for one reason: they’re religious.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that such content-based discrimination against religious speech is unconstitutional.  The latest example came in March, when the Supreme Court declined to take a case called, Badger Catholic v. Walsh. A federal appeals court had struck down the University of Wisconsin’s policy prohibiting funding for “prayer, proselytizing and worship” by private student groups, when the school allowed secular groups to do similar activities, like recruit members for their causes.  The Supreme Court issued opinions in 1981 and again in 1995 and several others since then saying that the government cannot constitutional exclude student religious speech from access to meeting space or money when the university offers it to all groups.

You would  think that repeated Supreme Court rulings would spur public universities to take notice and change their unconstitutional policies—especially those universities who told the U.S. Supreme Court that they actively flout previous rulings by the court and exclude student religious expression from forums open to all other student speech.

Unbelievably, around the nation, public universities are retaining and enforcing these unconstitutional policies against student religious groups. Some have blatantly said that they plan to ignore what the federal appeals court ruled against the University of Wisconsin. .

If you pay mandatory student fees at your university, but your student group has been denied recognition or funding because you are religious, contact us at 1-800-TELL-ADF, or tell us your story here. Speak up if your university is denying you your constitutional rights.

This post originally appeared here.