For the second time, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Roman Catholic Foundation-UW-Madison saying the university cannot refuse to fund certain student religious-based activities.
During a preliminary injunction hearing Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge John Shabaz said the university's policy of denying funding requests for prayer, worship or proselytizing activities is unconstitutional.
Shabaz issued a similar ruling in March 2007, after the university denied funds to RCF-UW because it did not meet the requirements of a registered student organization.
In an out-of-court settlement in May 2007, the university agreed to fund the group with more than $250,000 in student fees. However, the RCF-UW filed a second lawsuit in September 2007 against UW-Madison, citing violations of their previous agreement.
The university agreed, in essence, to not use religious criteria to exclude [RCF-UW] or other religious student groups for consideration with student fees,"" said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, RCF-UW's legal representative.
""To say that religious groups can't get money that's available to all [student groups], would be like saying that if a synagogue catches on fire, the city fire department can't put it out because that would be government aide to religion,"" Lorence said.
The second lawsuit also asked UW-Madison to reimburse $39,000 to the RCF for past expenses.
""The university is not required to pay RCF's past reimbursement requests at this time, as that will be determined at [a June] trial,"" John Lucas, a University Communications spokesperson, said via e-mail, but the university cannot deny future reimbursement requests for religious activities made prior to trial.
UW-Madison has previously denied all allegations of religious discrimination and ""the university will continue its strong defense,"" Lucas said.
