Ten years ago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison was taken to court by several of its law students who challenged a requirement that all students pay a fee to fund student organizations on campus.
The university said the goal of the student fee program was to expose students to a variety of opinions and activities. The law students argued that it violated their free speech by forcing them to support groups they found offensive, such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Campus Center.
The case – Southworth vs. The UW System Board of Regents – was litigated all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2000, the court ruled that UW-Madison’s student fee program was constitutional, but only if the money was distributed to student organizations regardless of their viewpoints.
The decision, which affected public universities across the country, is now being tested on the campus where it began.