Student government associations at Georgia Tech unconstitutionally declined to fund a speech last fall by pro-life advocate Alveda King, says a new lawsuit filed in Atlanta.
The funding request from students in Georgia Tech’s campus chapter of Students for Life for the address by Ms. King, a former state legislator and niece of civil rights hero the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was denied because of hostility toward anti-abortion viewpoints in the student government associations, says the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
“If university defendants are permitted to mandate that plaintiffs pay the student activity fee, the First Amendment requires that university defendants ensure the fees are distributed in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” wrote Travis C. Barham, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, who filed the lawsuit.
The president of an anti-abortion student group says he paid $3,000 out of his own pocket after Georgia Tech’s Student Government Association and the Student House of Representatives voted against allowing a student activity fees fund to be tapped to pay for the October speech by Ms. King. The fund is supposedly open to all student groups, regardless of political viewpoints.
The lawsuit also notes that nearly $3,000 from the fund was given to students attending the Young Democratic Socialists of America Winter National Conference and another $5,000 to sponsor an event featuring former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.
• Christopher Vondracek can be reached at cvondracek@washingtontimes.com.
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