Facing a lawsuit, the University of California at Berkeley has revised its policy on student groups, granting a conservative organization the same rights as groups such as Cal Berkeley Democrats, Progressive Student Association and Socialist Alternative at Berkeley.
University officials have reached a settlement that will mean they no longer can deny or delay recognition of a student organization based on its “statements of purpose or uniqueness, mission statement, or other viewpoint.”
The case was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Young Americans for Liberty.
ADFÂ said that as part of a settlement ending the suit, the university also agreed to pay damages and attorneys’ fees.
“Public university officials can’t discriminate against students because of their political beliefs,” said ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton. “By leaving decisions on whether a student group is ‘too similar’ to another club in the hands of a university official with no requirement to follow any viewpoint-neutral standards, UC-Berkeley allowed for unconstitutional discrimination, but these changes fix that problem.
“Because these students stood up and challenged the status quo, the marketplace of ideas is freer at Berkeley today than it was last year,” he said.
When the case developed, YAL’s Cliff Maloney explained, “It is absurd to think that other Berkeley groups are lighting the campus on fire and throwing rocks through windows, but YAL’s efforts to peaceably promote the message of liberty are being shunned by university administrators.
“This incident is exactly why Young Americans for Liberty launched the national Fight for Free Speech campaign. All students, regardless of ideology, should be guaranteed their First Amendment right to free speech,” he said.
Dalton said public universities “are supposed to be a ‘marketplace of ideas’ for students, but that can’t happen when administrators are allowed to pick and choose which student organizations will be recognized based on the students’ views.”
The school opinion would have prevented YAL from receiving the campus benefits granted other student groups. For example, the group would have been prohibited from reserving space for meetings, it could not invite speakers and it could not access the pool of funds to which its members contribute.
Berkeley officials had claimed the YAL organization is “too similar” to Cal Libertarians, who already are recognized.
ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox, who directs the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, said, “Today’s college students will be tomorrow’s judges, legislators and voters, and UC-Berkeley is communicating to that generation the troubling message that government gets to decide which views can be expressed.”
YAL’s Maloney said that as the birth place of the Free Speech Movement and a public university, Cal Berkeley “has done the right thing in agreeing to respect the First Amendment in this matter.”
“I applaud the students for standing up for their constitutionally protected freedoms and advocating for a level playing field,” he said.
The 22-page complaint had named as defendants University of California system President Janet Napolitano, UC-Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, interim UC-Berkeley Vice Chancellor Stephen Sutten and a number of unidentified individuals.
