Student Services Fee (SSF)

For Student Services Fee Task Force

“Viewpoint neutrality”

There is no single, legal definition of viewpoint neutrality. Rather, it is a concept that is derived from court opinions addressing freedom of expression under the First Amendment. It essentially means without regard to the point of view of the speaker.

The basic legal outline is that when the State opens a limited public forum, it may regulate the content—or subject matter—of speech as appropriate to serve the purpose of the forum. For example, if a public university opens a limited public forum for discussion of foreign policy, it may limit the discussion in the forum to the subject of forum policy. The State may not exclude speech from the forum where the subject-matter distinction is not reasonable in light of the forum’s purpose. Thus, content-based distinctions must be based on the purpose of the forum.

When the State regulates speech based not on the subject matter or content of the speech, but rather on the perspective or opinion or specific motivating ideology of the speaker, it engages in viewpoint discrimination. Viewpoint discrimination is prohibited, even in a limited public forum. Thus, if speech otherwise falls within the forum’s limitations, government may not discriminate against the speech because it opposes the particular point of view the speech expresses.

To say that viewpoint discrimination is prohibited, however, does not mean that every government regulation affecting speech is prohibited. In the area of student fees, there is a functional limit to the amount of money available to give groups. The Supreme Court has said that universities may “ration or allocate the scarce resources” as long as they do so “on some acceptable neutral principle.” The Court has not delimited the “acceptable neutral principles” upon which universities may base funding decisions, but has recognized, for example, “relat[ion] to the educational purpose of the University” as a viewpoint-neutral basis for decision making. Similarly, the Court has recognized that a university may impose viewpoint-neutral restrictions on activities by student groups—for example, restricting off-campus travel or other types of expenditures.

To view the full Supreme Court opinion mentioned here go to: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-1189.ZS.html