Court Says Funding Student Group Poses No Establishment Clause Problem

Yesterday in Roman Catholic Foundation, UW Madison, Inc. v. Walsh, (WD WI, Jan. 17, 2008), a Wisconsin federal district court enjoined the University of Wisconsin from refusing to use student activity fees in 2007-08 to fund activities of a Catholic student group. The University had claimed that the Establishment Clause barred it from funding activities that involve religious speech considered to be prayer, worship or proselytizing. Relying largely on the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rosenberger v. Univ. of Virginia, the court held that the funding denial amounted to viewpoint discrimination, and that granting of such funding would not violate the Establishment Clause. However the court refused a second request for a preliminary injunction, finding that plaintiff was unlikely to be able to show that the standards student government used otherwise in evaluating funding requests gave student government unbridled discretion. Using its "significant additional components" requirement, student government denied 2008-09 funding to the Roman Catholic Foundation. Yesterday's Chippewa and Chronicle of Higher Education both report on the court's decision. This is the second lawsuit brought by the Foundation against UW-Madison. (See prior related posting.)