UPDATE December 15, 2023: After receiving our letter, the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse swiftly confirmed it would back down from its requirement that YAF and other student groups adopt an inclusivity statement. This is a testament to how Mountain States gets results for liberty, and a win for free speech rights everywhere.
In defense of free speech and against compelled ideology, Mountain States Legal Foundation today sent a demand letter to the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (UWL) in support of a student group’s right to free speech. Specifically, we are insisting that the university—located in La Crosse, Wisconsin—recognize the group without forcing it to adopt a purported “inclusivity statement” in its bylaws. The group is the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) campus chapter.
UWL is just the latest college targeting conservative students and organizations. The university’s student government controls which groups on campus receive official status as student organizations. That status is necessary for groups like YAF to host their popular speaker series and other events on campus.
Ideological Test
The university is requiring that for groups to receive official status they must express their agreement with a so-called “inclusivity statement.” The university has no business requiring student groups to affirm agreement with any set of social policies—be they conservative, liberal, progressive, or any other kind. But in this case, it is even worse, because the declaration YAF is being required to make affirms all sorts of controversial and dubious social policies. Here is the text of the statement:
[The student organization] recognizes and values the diverse identities, backgrounds, and beliefs of our faculty and of the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse student body. Our definition of diversity includes, but is not limited to ability, age, class, documentation status, gender identity, language, military status, nationality, race, religion, and sexual orientation. We are committed to providing and promoting an environment free of prejudice by addressing issues of equity and justice in our community, and we support the success of marginalized identities.
Implications
This sort of ideological mini-manifesto is how UWL intends to compel speech and political conformity to their prescribed viewpoints. YAF rejects the idea that it must sign any kind of statement of beliefs, but especially rejects the idea that it can be forced to affirm ideological statements that run counter to its conservative viewpoint just to receive school recognition. By requiring YAF to recognize:
- “Diverse genders,” UWL is compelling YAF to deny biological reality and affirm a belief that a person asserting a cross-sex gender identity is in fact the sex they assert themselves to be, regardless of their objectively ascertainable biological sex.
- Individuals regardless of “documentation status,” UWL is compelling YAF to oppose enforcement of valid immigration laws.
- “Diverse beliefs of UWL faculty,” UWL is compelling YAF to lie and say that the near universal far-left viewpoints of hostile professors are actually “diverse,” when they are in fact monolithic.
- And be “committed to addressing issues of equity and justice,” UWL is compelling YAF to support race-based policymaking.
Compelling Speech
The university is trying to compel speech from YAF as a condition of its existence, forcing them to choose between ideological conformity or their valid conscientious objections. This is in blatant violation of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” (W. Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette) It is the cardinal rule in America that the government cannot compel a person to adopt the preferred message of the government. (303 Creative LLC v. Eleni)
Our demand letter says that state actors like the student government at UWL “have no business whatsoever telling YAF that it must express a position one way or the other about” anything.
Mountain States Legal Foundation is joined by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) in this letter. WILL’s deputy counsel Dan Lennington said, “[UWL’s action] is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Make no mistake, WILL is ready to challenge discriminatory DEI policies everywhere and anywhere. The school must correct this action, or we are prepared to take further legal action.”
Mountain States is offering the administration at UWL one and only one opportunity to rein in its anti-constitutional student government, reverse course, and immediately remove the “inclusivity statement” condition on YAF’s recognition. Should they fail to do so, you can rest assured that we are waiting to defend the free speech rights of YAF and all Americans.
This matter was featured in the following publications:
