{"id":12980,"date":"2013-03-21T13:05:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T17:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=12980"},"modified":"2015-05-28T16:53:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T20:53:35","slug":"students-denied-funding-for-pro-life-display-request-called-too-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/students-denied-funding-for-pro-life-display-request-called-too-controversial\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Denied Funding For Pro-Life Display; Request Called Too Controversial"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an age when anything goes on most campuses today \u2013 billboard-sized pictures of vaginas<\/a>, covering a Jesus statue with vacuum dirt<\/a>, hosting a masturbation tutorial<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s hard to believe that students asking their college officials for funding for a prolife display would be denied as being too controversial.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just what happened at a college in Michigan – and students are fighting back.<\/p>\n

The conservative lawfirm Alliance Defending Freedom on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit<\/a> against Eastern Michigan University on behalf of the pro-life students.<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversity officials denied the group funding from mandatory student activity fees based on its \u2018political or ideological\u2019 views even though the university funds other groups involved in political and ideological speech,\u201d alliance officials stated<\/a> in explaining the suit.<\/p>\n

They went on to note that:<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,\u201d said Senior Legal Counsel David Hacker. \u201cThe university funded the advocacy of other student organizations but singled out Students for Life for exclusion based purely upon its viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February, Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University applied for student fee funding to host a pro-life display on campus called the Genocide Awareness Project, a traveling photo-mural exhibit which compares the contemporary genocide of abortion to historically recognized forms of genocide. EMU denied the request because they deemed the photos of the aborted babies and the event as too controversial, biased, and one-sided.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University v. Parker, notes that EMU officials have been inconsistent with their funding guidelines and have allocated the same funds to political and ideological speech discussing \u201cwelfare rights, women\u2019s and abortion rights, student activist training, and race-conscious issues, just to name a few.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also explains that the First Amendment\u2019s Freedom of Speech Clause \u201cprohibits content and viewpoint discrimination in a public university\u2019s allocation of mandatory student fee funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, \u201cthe government may not regulate speech based on policies that permit arbitrary, discriminatory, and overzealous enforcement.\u201d As the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed, \u201cviewpoint neutrality\u201d must be the operating principle of student fees and funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe constitutional freedoms of pro-life student organizations should be recognized by university officials just as they recognize those freedoms for other student groups,\u201d added Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. \u201cWe hope EMU revises its student funding policy to include all groups, regardless of their political or ideological viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven M. Jentzen, one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, is co-counsel in the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom has prevailed in similar lawsuits against University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A&M University.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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