Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth

Summary

The Court held that the First Amendment permits a public university to charge students an activity fee used to fund a program facilitating extracurricular student speech if the program is viewpoint neutral. The student referendum mechanism, however, was not upheld and must be reexamined under viewpoint neutrality principles. Justice Souter, with whom Justices Stevens and Breyer joined, concurred in the judgment but warned against imposing a cast-iron viewpoint neutrality requirement.