A student club is suing Cal State San Marcos, alleging the university spent nearly $300,000 in mandatory student fees this year to promote gay- and gender-equality issues, but refused a request for $500 to bring in an outside speaker with conservative views.

The campus chapter of Students for Life, a national group opposed to abortion, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging its members’ free-speech rights were violated, and the group was subjected to viewpoint discrimination. The suit also accuses the school of violating club members’ right to equal protection.

In the suit, the club argues the university’s student government rejected the funding request that would have been used to help bring in an out-of-state college professor for a presentation on “Abortion and Human Equality” this spring. The suit states that the student government told the campus club that it does not supply money for speakers fees.

However, the suit says, the student government — Associated Students Inc. — funds the LGBTQA Pride and Gender Equity centers with nearly $150,000 each a year, and that some of that money was spent this year on presentations like “Kink 101,” a talk by a local “sexologist.”


Nathan Apodaca, president of the campus Students for Life club, called the funding decisions “kind of a scam.”

“Being required to pay for views you disagree with, but not (get funding for) your own views equally — why would I want to pay for that?” Apodaca said Thursday.

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, the university issued a statement that said: “Cal State San Marcos is committed to fostering a campus environment where diverse ideas and views can be presented and discussed. In addition, we take student complaints and concerns very seriously.”

Student activities fees, which this semester were $50 and will rise to $75 this fall, are mandatory for every student at the San Marcos campus. The fees go to the Associated Students group, which is a nonprofit entity. The student council — called the board of directors — decides each year where the money goes.


Student board members could not be reached for comment Thursday. The 2016-17 board has completed its term and the new officers haven’t yet been sworn in.

Leaders at the LBTQA Pride center and the Gender Equity center referred questions to the university’s communications office.

The goal of the lawsuit is to gain equal access to the fees for all student groups, said attorney Tyson Langhofer, senior council for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy law firm focused on religious freedom. His firm filed the case on behalf of Students for Life.

“It’s really outrageous for any university to force students to pay for viewpoints that they agree with, while denying support for opposing points of view,” Langhofer said.


Will Creeley, senior vice president of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Rights in Individual Education — a nonprofit aimed at defending civil liberties in academia — said the case will come down to whether the university is applying the same standard to all groups.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that when public universities open student activities funds to be disbursed, they have to be disbursed in a viewpoint-neutral way,” said “They can’t pick and chose who gets funds based on the viewpoint of the group.”

Creeley said the plaintiffs will have to show evidence of a double standard or that the decision to deny funding was motivated by the viewpoint. However, if there is an objective, content-neutral rule that justifies the decision to deny funding, the plaintiffs “will have an uphill climb.”

He said, ironically, similar campus speech cases from 30 years ago “involved LGBT groups that were denied funding and recognition.”


This school year, the Associated Students’ operating budget at CSUSM was nearly $1.4 million. Of that, $296,000 went to support the two centers and all of their programming — more than 21 percent of the operating budget.

The student government also funds the student groups through its leadership fund, up to $500 a semester for approved uses. Speaker fees are not an approved use.

The school recognizes more than 100 student clubs, including academic groups, religious groups, service clubs and special interest groups — of which Students for Life is one. The Pride and Gender Equity centers are not considered student groups, but rather entities under the umbrella of the student government.

Still, Apodaca said, the rules should be the same for all.


“There is something really fishy going on here,” he said. “The school touts itself as a community that values diversity and individual perceptions. But some groups get far more funding that others.”

The university’s chapter of Students for Life has been around for three or four years and has roughly 30 members, according to Apodaca, a junior who took the reins after he transferred from Palomar College this school year.

Viewpoint discrimination complaints have led to legal actions elsewhere. Langhofer’s firm filed a similar suit against Colorado State University, also on behalf of a Students for Life chapter; that suit is pending.

And in 2014, the University of Michigan reportedly paid $14,000 to settle a suit after it was accused of denying a campus group $1,000 in student fees to put toward an event featuring a prominent opponent of affirmative action.


teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT