Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

Rosenberger v. University of Virginia
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 1, 1995 Decided June 29, 1995
Full case name	Ronald W. Rosenberger, et al., Petitioners v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, et al.
Citations	515 U.S. 819 (more) 115 S. Ct. 2510; 132 L. Ed. 2d 700; 1995 U.S. LEXIS 4461; 63 U.S.L.W. 4702; 95 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5005; 95 Daily Journal DAR 8512; 9 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 272
Prior history	Summary judgment entered for the University by the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, 795 F. Supp. 175 (W.D. Va. 1992); affirmed, 18 F.3d 269 (4th Cir. 1994); cert. granted, 513 U.S. 959 (1994).
Holding
The University's denying funds available to other student publications, but not to a publication produced from a religious viewpoint, violates the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The University's assertion that the exclusion was necessary to avoid violating the Establishment Clause lacked merit because the funds were apportioned neutrally to any group meeting certain criteria that requested the funds.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas
Concurrence	O'Connor
Concurrence	Thomas
Dissent	Souter, joined by Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995), was an opinion by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding whether a state university might, consistent with the First Amendment, withhold from student religious publications funding provided to similar secular student publications. The University provided funding to every student organization that met funding-eligibility criteria, which Wide Awake, the student religious publication fulfilled. The University of Virginia defense claimed that denying student activity funding of the religious magazine was necessary to avoid the University’s violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court disagreed with the University; constitutional law scholar Michael W. McConnell argued on behalf of the student religious publication, and John Calvin Jeffries argued on behalf of the University of Virginia. The decision centered upon Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, a document on religious freedom by James Madison.

To fund student organization activities, the University of Virginia (UVA) charges and collects from the student body, a semestral "activities fee". Registered student organizations, including "student news, information, opinion, entertainment, or academic communications media groups", may use said funding to pay some of their expenses; the ineligible UVA student activities include "religious activities, philanthropic activities, political activities, activities that would jeopardize the University's tax-exempt status, those that involve payment of honoraria or similar fees, or social or entertainment-related expenses". Moreover, the UVA student activity funding policy defined "religious activity" as one that "primarily promotes or manifests a particular belief in or about a deity or an ultimate reality". The funds were disbursed via student organization requests for reimbursement of third-party expenses, paid by the student-activities-fund administrator.