FIRE is taking on on Washington University at St. Louis. The Student Bar Association has twice denied recognition to Law Students Pro-Life. It seems that Law Students Pro-Life does not get to be an official student group because its members subscribe to beliefs that the moral paragons who run SBA find personally repugnant. The ruling disqualifies Law Students Pro Life from receiving any university funding, despite the fact that each of its members pay money into the university's student activity fund as part of their tuition. This one is a no brainer. The Supreme Court has been eminently clear on the question of funding student groups, stating in several cases over the years that decisions about whether to fund a group must be made solely on content-neutral grounds. Denying a group funding because of what it stands for is viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple. How ironic that at WUSL it is law students who are busily butchering the First Amendment in the name of political correctness.

FIRE has fought--and won--similar cases at Tufts and Penn State, and they will win this one. The only thing that is uncertain is just how much more humiliation WUSL's chancellor is willing to bring upon his school before he gets educated about the law and does the right and only thing. You can read FIRE's letter to Chancellor Wrightman here, and you can read the denial of funding letter sent by the president of SBA to Law Students Pro Life here.

Readers interested in the constitutional issues raised by student activities fees might be interested in the blog series I wrote last summer over at Cant Watch. Part One is here, and Part Two is here.

UPDATE: The people at WUSL now think Law Students Pro Life might fare differently if they file a third application for recognition. FIRE has a lot to do with it, though university administrators are reluctant to admit it.