A federal appeals court ruled last Wednesday that UW-Madison was wrong to deny funds to Badger Catholic, a student group for religious activities.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided in a 2-1 decision that UW-Madison's policy of withholding funding requests through segregated fees to students groups for activities involving prayer, worship and proselytizing was a violation of the groups' First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
During the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years, UW-Madison denied funding for some activities of Badger Catholic, arguing that six activities were strictly religious in nature.
The activities included student mentoring sessions with Catholic nuns and priests and a retreat where participants held regular mass and prayer sessions.
The UW-Madison legal department believed these activities were a violation of the separation of church and state, and therefore the group should not be awarded student segregated fees for these activities.
In a precedent court case in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted an assurance that funds are distributed without regard to the speakers' perspectives. It concluded that a neutral program could be funded by a uniform fee collected from each student in University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth.
Nico Fassino, UW-Madison student and leader of Badger Catholic, said Badger Catholic is a religious organization that fills a particular role on campus.
""There are no other student organizations that try to serve or cater to students' spiritual needs,"" Fassino said. ""Our goal is to connect students to a faith, help them to find a faith that will inspire them to be great drivers of positive change in the world.""
According to Fassino, the goal of Badger Catholic is to reach out to as many people on campus regardless of their faith or background.
Fassino said the lawsuit began in 2007 when Badger Catholic was denied reimbursement of a previously approved budget.
""At the end of the year the legal department from the University [of Wisconsin] prevented reimbursement to Badger Catholic for some $40,000 program that had already been performed in accordance with the approved budget,"" Fassino said.
According to Fassino, the programs that the university was refusing to reimburse were in some aspect worship, prayer or proselytizing.
According to the court case, the district court concluded that reimbursing the expenses of religious speakers, through a program equally available to secular speakers, does not violate the Establishment Clause, and that, having established a public forum, the university must not exclude speakers who want to use the forum for worship.
Fassino said the university and Badger Catholic now have a good relationship.
""I think that immediately following the lawsuit during the year the lawsuit had begun, there was a lot of tension between the university and Badger Catholic,"" Fassino said. ""But in my two years here, there has been a very professional relationship.""
According to Fassino, Badger Catholic is dedicated to serving all students on campus regardless of their faith or background and hopes to keep discussion of religion and faith alive on campus.
Since this lawsuit started in September 2007, Badger Catholic received no damages in the court ruling.
