BUZZ
Legal group celebrates victory as lawsuit moves forward
A college graduate forced to pay dues to a liberal student group can continue her lawsuit, a federal court ruled recently.
Tayah Lackie sued St. Cloud State University, Students United, and Minnesota State University officials for her required student fees.
The money went to Students United, which advocates for taxpayer-funded bailouts of student loan borrowers, something Lackie (pictured) opposes. She first filed her lawsuit in May of last year, as previously reported by The College Fix.
On July 10, a federal judge in Minnesota dismissed her claims against the other defendants but allowed the case against the student advocacy group to continue. The next step is discovery.
“Although Students United is a private organization on paper, the court found that it qualifies as a state actor in this case because it has a special right to student fees in state law and works jointly with the government to collect those fees,” the Liberty Justice Center explained in a celebratory news release. It is representing Lackie along with the Upper Midwest Law Center.
“This decision confirms what the Supreme Court held in Janus v. AFSCME—the First Amendment protects individuals when the government gives third party private actors the power to force people to fund their political speech,” said Jeffrey Schwab, Liberty Justice’s litigation director, stated in a news release.
“Forcing students to fund political speech they disagree with as a condition of attending a public university is a violation of the First Amendment, plain and simple,” Alexandra Howell of the Upper Midwest Law Center stated. “With this decision, we can now move forward in this case and hold Students United accountable for collecting money from students to fund its political advocacy.”
Students United is the official advocacy organization for Minnesota State University students, according to its website.
As previously reported by The Fix:
Lackie only found out that she was funding this political speech after she graduated. She opposes initiatives like “FCK Student Debt” given that she “paid [her] own way without taking on debt.”
The lawsuit says Students United is “a private corporation created for the purpose of engaging in political speech, which advocates for and takes positions on controversial policies and legislation, and which purports to speak on all students’ behalf.”
Attorneys for Lackie believe that this collection of fees is a form of compelled speech and therefore violates the First Amendment rights of students.
The president of the Liberty Justice Center previously told The Fix, “a victory in this case would establish that state colleges and universities cannot force students to pay fees to an activist group just to be allowed to attend.”
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Tayah (Lackie) Tweeten; Personal Linkedin; Sora Shimazaki/Pexels
