In what could prove to be the end of a five-year process, a three-judge panel heard the case of Fry v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin Tuesday in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The case, originally filed by then-UW-Madison student Scott Southworth, addresses the constitutionality of the student organization funding process in the UW System.
The case originated in 1996 and was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in March 2000 that the UW System's method of distributing mandatory student segregated fees to student organizations was legal, provided decisions were made on a viewpoint-neutral basis.
In the original case, both sides agreed to the stipulation that the funding process was viewpoint neutral. Following the Supreme Court decision, Southworth and his lawyers asked the 7th Circuit to void the stipulation. The court found the motion easonable,"" and the case was remanded to the U.S. District Court in Madison. Judge John Shabaz ruled March 16, 2001, that the distribution system was unconstitutional. The UW System appealed the decision to the 7th Circuit April 13.
The basic argument offered by the UW System in Tuesday's hearing was that new litigation from the Southworth camp failed to introduce any specific examples in which the student fee allocation process had taken viewpoint into account.
""I think the argument went very well in the sense that everybody had an opportunity to develop their positions,"" said UW System Senior Legal Counsel Patricia Brady, one of the lawyers who argued the case for the UW System.
UW System spokesperson Erik Christianson said the System's position has been that the segregated-fee system is constitutional and ensures viewpoint neutrality.
""The plaintiffs have not provided one example of a student group that felt that it was discriminated against because of its particular focus,"" Christianson said.
Southworth said he felt neither ""optimistic"" nor ""completely dejected"" after Tuesday's hearing.
""I'm not as pleased as I wanted to be,"" he said.
He also said the reaction of certain judges was unexpected.
""The questions from Judge [William] Bauer were a lot more aggressive than we expected from him,"" he said. ""He seemed to be more in favor of the UW. I think he's probably not with us.""
If the judges rule in favor of the UW System, the funding process will remain the same. If they rule in favor of Southworth, they will most likely mandate changes to the process.
It is uncertain when the judges will rule in the case.
Southworth said he thought the judges would take a minimum of two months to decide; more likely, he said, they will issue a decision this spring.
Brady said, like any court case, it is hard to predict when the decision would come.
""We always take one step at a time,"" she said.
