The lawsuit between Eastern Michigan University and the Christian legal ministry Alliance Defending Freedom has been resolved. Under the resolution, the university’s Student Government will amend its fund allocations to accommodate all student groups. EMU’s insurance company, Michigan Universities Self-Insurance Corporation will pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees of $3,000.
The lawsuit was originally launched in March of this year. It stated that EMU officials denied the Students for Life group funding for mandatory student activity fees. The group had requested the funding in February for the pro-life display, the Genocide Awareness Project, but Student Government declined to fund the exhibit.
As previously reported earlier this year in The Eastern Echo, the lawsuit Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University v. Parker, drawn up by ADF attorneys, stated that university officials had been inconsistent with funding for political and ideological speech, violating the First Amendment
Freedom of Speech Clause that, “prohibits content and viewpoint discrimination in a public university’s allocation of mandatory student fee funding.”
The exhibit appeared outside King Hall, Marshall and Pray-Harrold on EMU’s campus in April. The university had already approved the display of the project in 2012. The Student Government eventually gave funding to the Students for Life organization, but not the exhibit itself.
Geoff Larcom, executive director of media relations at EMU, said that the student leaders have amended their fund allocation policy to ensure a greater degree of consistency.
“We’re happy to resolve this lawsuit,” Larcom said.
“We’re pleased that Eastern Michigan University changed the police which now allows all student groups to apply for funding,” David Hacker, senior legal council for ADF, said. “We’re obviously thankful that Eastern Michigan University provided the funding…after we filed the lawsuit for the
Students for Life group.”
Hacker said the result of this lawsuit is good, not just for the Students for Life group, but for all students on EMU’s campus because the university now protects their constitutional rights.
EMU Student Body President Desmond Miller addressed the change in the allocation of funds in an email.
“As part of a total rewrite of our governing documents that was already under way and passed unanimously by our student senate on Aug. 17, new standards for allocating funds to student organizations were created in those bylaws to ensure an open process,” Miller wrote. “We’re pleased with this outcome because it established consistent and fair rules that will help move students forward.”
