Case
Closed
Viewpoint Neutrality Now at the University of Minnesota
The public page describes a First Amendment case about student lounges at the University of Minnesota. It says the court effort was unsuccessful.
The live page says attorney Erick Kaardal, described there as Five Stones legal counsel, brought federal claims for Viewpoint Neutrality Now! and student advocates. It says the claims challenge the University of Minnesota’s use of mandatory student-activity fees to subsidize exclusive, permanent lounge space for some student organizations while denying equal access to others. It says the case was in federal district court and on appeal in the Eighth Circuit. It says the court strategies were unsuccessful and that the effort is turning to reforms through the university or the state legislature.
Summary on the public page
The page says the university has nine student lounges leased for decades to the same nine organizations, which it calls student cultural centers, and that other organizations cannot apply because they are not the lessees. It names the Queer Student Cultural Center, Mi Gente Latinx, Feminist Student Activist Collective, Al Madinah Cultural Center, and Black Student Union among those lessees. It says proving viewpoint discrimination from the leases is difficult under current Supreme Court decisions, so the plaintiffs ask the Court to recognize a status-discrimination claim in a limited public forum.
The live projects list marks this matter closed.
A gift is a donation to Five Stones Legal Defense Fund.