UW seeks high court review of Badger Catholic decision

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court ruling that required UW–Madison to fund religious worship activities.

In a Sept. 1, 2010 decision in the case of Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the university’s decision to decline a small portion of funding requested by Badger Catholic, a registered student organization at UW–Madison, violated Badger Catholic’s First Amendment rights to free speech.

The Roman Catholic Foundation, now known as Badger Catholic, which had requested $253,000 in student fees, originally brought the case in September 2007.

The university funded most of that request, but declined to approve roughly $35,000 – about 14 percent – that was earmarked for six religious worship activities.

The university has funded a variety of student programs sponsored by religious student organizations. The university has argued that the use of public dollars for avowedly sectarian religious worship raises important constitutional issues regarding separation of church and state. Within that context, the university maintains that it is permitted to limit the use of public funds for religious worship within the limited public forum it has created for expressive student activities.

On Nov. 30, 2010, the Board of Regents filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court grants the petition, the case would be scheduled for oral arguments and briefs sometime in 2011.

If granted, the petition would mark the university’s first case before the high court since the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Southworth in 2000, a landmark case for the student fees system.

The Southworth case upheld the university’s right to collect mandatory student fees to support student organization expression and activities provided that the activities funded are chosen without reference to political or ideological viewpoint.

Foley & Lardner will represent the university and Regents in the case.

The American Council on Education has agreed to file an amicus brief supporting the petition.