A conservative activist group has filed a lawsuit against the University of Florida alleging school of violating their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The suit filed by the prominent conservative organization, Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the University of Florida (UF YAF), alleges school of implementing a policy that bars speakers with conservative beliefs.
The conservative group said in a statement that the university rolled out its new policy after its chapter hosted New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza for a lecture.
“UF officials are actively trying to stifle the University of Florida Young Americans for Freedom chapter on the basis of the students’ conservative beliefs,” Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown said.
“This past year, the University of Florida denied UF YAF funding to host Dana Loesch and Andrew Klavan. That denial—and the timing of policy changes that, in function, only impact UF YAF—speaks loudly to the University of Florida’s true intention to prevent conservative ideas being heard on campus. The First Amendment guarantees all students the right to free expression, yet the University of Florida seems to think that it has the power to arbitrarily deprive students of their free speech rights.”
The organization further alleges school of putting their local chapter in the non-budgeted category resulting in stoppage of funding from the student activity fees.
“University of Florida administrators are limiting YAF members’ First Amendment freedoms by forcing them to pay into a system that funds opposing viewpoints,” Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Blake Meadows said.
“Worse yet, the university forces YAF to play an arbitrary, complex game of Chutes and Ladders in the funding process, wherein the student group can continually be sent back to the beginning of the game at the sole discretion of the student government,” he added.
Meanwhile, the university has issued no statement on the pending litigation.