Of Speeches and Sermons

Richard M. Esenberg at the Marquette University Law Faculty Blog, October 1, 2008 on a recent decision in Roman Catholic Foundation, UW-Madison, Inc. v. Regents of the University of Wisconsin System over

the University’s refusal to allow segregated fees (that portion of a student’s tuition reserved for the funding of student organizations) to be used for certain RCF activities that the University regarded as worship, proselytizing, or sectarian instruction.

In the decistion,

District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Eastern District of Wisconsin, sitting by designation, entered a declaratory judgment “stating that the University may not categorically exclude worship, proselytizing or sectarian instruction from segregated fee funding unless it does so pursuant to a rationale that is reasonable in light of the purposes of the forum and viewpoint neutral.”