Washington briefs … - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 27, 2000

Judge Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the court's opinion, "The First Amendment permits a public university to charge its students an activity fee used to fired a program to facilitate extracurricular student speech if the program is viewpoint neutral, "meaning it doesn't discriminate against groups of the students.

"This decision is great news for the university, and for students and for the marketplace of ideas on campus," says Ivan Frishberg, who heads the higher education project of the U.S. Public interest Research Group, which has dozens of campus-based chapters that rely on student-activity fees for support.

Scott Harold Southworth, one of several current and former Wisconsin students who were plaintiffs in the case, says he views the Supreme Court decision as "a loss," but vowed that "we will move on and keep fighting the battle."