Conservative Students' Lawsuit for Free Speech Reaches High Court

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 3, 1999 | by Jamie Dettmer, | Eli Lehrer

A Supreme Court case set for oral arguments in October may deal a significant blow to the left's power over student organizations on college campuses. The case, Southworth vs. Grebe, which the court took in late March, stems from an objection mounted by conservative law students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They have legally challenged university policies that make them pay activity fees. Some of those fees end up in the coffers of left-wing groups the law students oppose.

If the students prevail in the Supreme Court, one particular loser promises to be the Ralph Nader-founded Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRGs, that exist on several hundred campuses and sponsor broad-based lobbying and activism on consumer, environmental and educational issues. The groups get a large portion of their funding from compulsory student fees. "The lower court rulings against compulsory student-activity fees strike at the heart of what a campus is all about," says Robin Hubbard, the organizer of the Center for Campus Free Speech, a group sponsored by the PIRGs and other organizations that depend on student activity fees. "These lawsuits are an attempt to restrict debate."

Those on the right disagree. "PIRGs, which are far-left organizations, would be hit very hard on the national level. This would free up debate on campus," says Dan Flynn, the executive director of the conservative advocacy group Accuracy in Academia.

Jordan Lorence, the general counsel for the Northstar Legal Center in Fairfax, Va., and the plaintiff's attorney in the Supreme Court case, says: "The idea should be that universities can't discriminate on the basis of ideology and can't force people to pay for ideas they don't agree with."