Judge rules student fees unconstitutional

UW System officials are deciding whether to appeal a decision by a federal judge that the university’s student fee system is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge John Shabaz ruled Dec. 8 that the mandatory fee system does not insure the distribution of funds to student groups regardless of their views.

Shabaz gave the university 60 days to devise a constitutional system for allocating the segregated fee. Because of the timing, the student fee will be collected for the spring semester.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that the university’s student fee system was constitutional because it distributed funds to groups on a viewpoint-neutral basis. At the same time, it sent back part of the case to the district court to review certain aspects of how the money is distributed.