Students for Life Wins Victory After GA Tech Student Gov't Discriminates Against Them and Alveda King

It was last summer that pro-life student group Students For Life (SFL) sought funding for their campus event at Georgia Tech that would feature as their speaker Alveda King, niece of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.  Alveda King is also a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Like all other students at Georgia Tech, members of Students For Life pay mandatory activity fees at the university which the Student Government Association (SGA) uses to fund various organizations' events on campus.  Such requests are usually fast-tracked for approval without any discussion. But not this time.

When Students For Life member Brian Cochran presented his group's request to the graduate and undergraduate houses of the SGA, they interrogated him on the content and viewpoints that Students for Life and King would present at the event.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FREE CBN NEWS APP 
Click Here Get the App with Special Alerts on Breaking News and Top Stories

SGA members stated that because King has been involved in religious ministries, her life was "inherently religious," and because they could not separate that from the event about civil rights and abortion, they denied the application funding. They went on to express concern that some students may be offended by King's presence on campus and viewpoints she had expressed in the past.

So much for diversity of thought, and for that matter, the First Amendment!

Students For Life went on with their event with Ms. King without university funding. She spoke about her experience in the civil rights movement and how students can continue to protect civil rights today. 

But the pro-life group also sought help from the religious liberty advocacy group, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton in a press release took Georgia Tech to task, saying that the so-called marketplace of ideas can't function properly if a university grants funding only to student groups whose views the university favors.

"Georgia Tech's policy allowed discrimination against Ms. King because she was accused of leading an 'inherently religious' life," Dalton said. "Under such a standard, MLK himself would not be welcome on campus. The Supreme Court made it clear 20 years ago that if public universities wish to force students to pay student activity fees, then those universities have a duty to ensure that the funds are distributed in a viewpoint-neutral manner."

On behalf of Students For Life, ADF filed a lawsuit last April against Georgia Tech. The lawsuit claimed viewpoint discrimination by the SGA n against Ms. King and Students for Life, denying them their constitutional rights, and stating, "When universities dictate, or grant students the power to dictate, which messages and messengers are allowed on campus they transform universities from 'marketplaces of ideas' to a seller's market of a single ideology deemed acceptable to the SGA."

The threat of a jury trial apparently got Georgia Tech's attention. Thursday, the ADF announced they'd come to an out-of-court settlement with Georgia Tech. 

The University has agreed to change its unconstitutional policies that had allowed the SGA to discriminate against Alveda King and Students For Life.  As part of the settlement ending the federal lawsuit, the university agreed to revise its policies to treat all student organizations fairly, regardless of viewpoint, and to pay $50,000 in damages and attorneys' fees.

ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer says it's a lesson all universities should learn.

"Today's university students will be tomorrow's voters and civic leaders," said Langhofer, who is director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. 

"That's why it's so important that public colleges and universities exemplify the First Amendment values they are supposed to be teaching to students. Thankfully, Georgia Tech has shown its renewed commitment to these principles by taking quick corrective action to revise their policies so that all student organizations are treated fairly, regardless of political or religious views. We hope that other universities around the country will ensure their policies meet constitutional muster without the need for a lawsuit."