Minnesota (2001)

Citing the unanimous opinion in favor of mandatory student fees in Southworth v University of Wisconsin, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of University of Minnesota students challenging mandatory fees. 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 of 1998. Their claim was that the funding for the University Young Women, the Queer Student Cultural Center, and La Raza Student Cultural Center violated First Amendment protections against compelled speech by requiring the students to pay a mandatory activities fee that went partly to fund ideas and activities with which they disagreed.

The development of this case closely mirrored that of Southworth; in both cases, the plaintiffs argued that First Amendment protections against compelled speech made mandatory student activities fees unconstitutional. However, the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Southworth set clear legal precedent to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims in the Minnesota case. Writing for the unanimous Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy concluded, "The First Amendment permits a public university to charge its students an activity fee used to fund a program to facilitate extracurricular student speech if the program is viewpoint neutral." The Southworth decision reaffirmed the importance of mandatory fees as integral to promoting a wide array of student activities and expression.