A federal judge upheld UW-Madison’s decision to deny the Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow funding Wednesday.
In 2009, CFACT filed a lawsuit against the university after the Student Services Finance Committee denied the group funding.
SSFC ruled CFACT did not submit its application on time and did not spend at least 50 percent of its time directly serving students, making the group ineligible for funding.
But CFACT said the committee violated viewpoint neutrality by taking the group’s conservative stance on environmental and social issues into account when deciding the group’s eligibility.
CFACT said one of the only differences between it and the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG), a group that received funding, is that WISPIRG is liberal and CFACT is conservative. The group said this proves SSFC ruled in a viewpoint non-neutral manner.
But U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said last year WISPIRG did not receive eligibility.
Adelman wrote in his opinion that in the future, if CFACT and WISPIRG’s eligibility decisions contradict each other’s, the student groups can open a new case against SSFC.
This year, SSFC granted WISPIRG eligibility and denied CFACT.
