{"id":29502,"date":"2013-03-28T07:04:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=29502"},"modified":"2013-03-28T11:22:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T15:22:01","slug":"students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/","title":{"rendered":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Members<\/a>

Members of Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University take part in Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity. (photo: Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit<\/a> last week against Eastern Michigan University on behalf of a local Students for Life group. According to the complaint, Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University applied for funding of their Genocide Awareness Project, a pro-life display. The student government at EMU \u201cdenied<\/a> the request because it deemed Students for Life\u2019s event as too controversial, biased, and one-sided.\u201d This, however, comes after allocation of funds<\/a> \u201cto political and ideological speech discussing welfare rights, women\u2019s and abortion rights, religion, student activist training, and race-conscious causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges<\/a> that this denial of funds for the abortion display while approving other political and ideological speech violates the students\u2019 First Amendment right to freedom of speech:<\/p>\n

The cornerstone of higher education is the ability of students to participate in the \u201cmarketplace of ideas\u201d on campus. In the context of providing funding to student organizations for their expressive activities, the First Amendment dictates that this marketplace cannot prefer some viewpoints to others. In direct violation of these principles, and relying on overruled case law, Eastern Michigan University (\u201cEMU\u201d) requires each student to pay a mandatory student fee, which is used, in part, to fund student organization speech.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

EMU compels all students to fund speech they disagree with, but prohibits some students from accessing the funds to engage in speech they do agree with, and enforces these prohibitions using content- and viewpoint-based standards. EMU officials enforce this discriminatory policy and undertake these discriminatory actions despite EMU\u2019s consistent funding of a wide variety of political, cultural, social, and religious speech by some student organizations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Supreme Court of the United State of America ruled in 2000 that mandatory student fees could be collected and used only if they were disbursed<\/a> \u201cwith viewpoint neutrality as the operational principle.\u201d Failure to require viewpoint neutrality is a violation of the First Amendment\u2019s free speech protection. Students for Life believe that a neutral viewpoint was not used when they requested funding for their abortion awareness project.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel David Hacker:<\/p>\n

Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas.\u00a0 The university funded the advocacy of other student organizations but singled out Students for Life for exclusion based purely upon its viewpoint.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viewpoint neutrality?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":29505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStudents for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Viewpoint neutrality?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/66367_1688370771954_4951530_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Heidi Miller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae\"},\"headline\":\"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\"},\"wordCount\":416,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Investigative\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\",\"name\":\"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae\",\"name\":\"Heidi Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe1288deec4343495ccd7310da984ee?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe1288deec4343495ccd7310da984ee?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Heidi Miller\"},\"description\":\"Heidi Miller is an attorney, specializing in litigation. She enjoys international travel, cooking, spending time with family and friends, and turning everyday life into an adventure!\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/heidimiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News","og_description":"Viewpoint neutrality?","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/66367_1688370771954_4951530_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Heidi Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Heidi Miller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/"},"author":{"name":"Heidi Miller","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae"},"headline":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial","datePublished":"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/"},"wordCount":416,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Investigative"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/","name":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-28T11:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-28T15:22:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/students-for-life-group-sues-university-after-pro-life-display-deemed-too-controversial\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Students for Life group sues university after pro-life display deemed too controversial"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae","name":"Heidi Miller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe1288deec4343495ccd7310da984ee?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe1288deec4343495ccd7310da984ee?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Heidi Miller"},"description":"Heidi Miller is an attorney, specializing in litigation. She enjoys international travel, cooking, spending time with family and friends, and turning everyday life into an adventure!","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/heidimiller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}