Minnesota (1998)

Extreme religious interests have filed yet another lawsuit challenging campus support of student activities. Supported by the Minnesota Family Council, a conservative religious lobby group, five students at the University of Minnesota filed suit against the Board of Regents in February. Their case claims that the funding for the University-Young Women, the Queer Student Cultural Center, and La Raza Student Cultural Center is unconstitutional.

This case reveals the same small cast of characters pushing their agenda to control the debate on campus. Both the Minnesota Family Council and Jordan Lorence, the Virginia-based lawyer leading the case, are actively involved in a similar case in Wisconsin that is being decided by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. They are pursuing their legal strategy despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Rosenberger, twenty years of precedent supporting student activities, and an 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in support of university funding for groups like those to which the Minnesota plaintiffs object.

University officials have defended the student fee system, explaining that it allows all groups a chance to express their opinions. "The regents want to promote a marketplace of ideas which will provide access to a wide diversity of viewpoints," stated University Counsel Mark Rotenberg in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article.

Student leaders have also highlighted the importance of the open forum that student fees create on campus. "It's a growing process. If you don't allow that questioning to happen, you no longer have a group of citizens who can think for themselves and participate," says Anh Pham of the University-Young Women.

In our ongoing effort to counter such attacks on the campus forum, the Center has facilitated communication between student leaders in Minnesota and student government leaders fending off Lorence's Wisconsin lawsuit.

Who is the Minnesota Family Council?
This case is part of a larger strategy to control the debate on campus.Lead counsel Jordan Lorence's Northstar Legal Center is an arm of the Minnesota Family Council. The Minnesota Family Council identify themselves as a "full-time lobbying and media organization" that "promotes traditional, Judeo-Christian values". Their work includes issue such as abortion, euthanasia, gambling, and homosexuality. Their web site joins the likes of the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute as having received Enter Stage Right's Conservative Site of the Day award. Kent Kaiser, communications director for the Council revealed his intolerance for other views when he was quoted saying that the student groups targeted represent "the most onerous, liberal ideological movements."

Responses from the University community
"A university campus ought to be a place where diverse student organizations flourish, thereby enhancing educational opportunities for all students. Student organizations facilitate the discussion of ideas and stimulate robust campus debate. A student fee process managed by students achieves those goals and reflects a partnership between students, the administration and the board of regents. We will work to make sure that the process remains fair and democratic."
- William Hogan, Chair of the Board of Regents of University of Minnesota

"We consider our student organizations to be a vital part of campus life and very important to the student body. Our system for funding those organizations is based on assessing a mandatory fee to all students. That system is now under judicial scrutiny, and we intend to defend the university's policies in the court of law."
- Mark Yudof, University of Minnesota President