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

Summary

The Court held that a public university may require students to pay a mandatory activity fee that funds extracurricular student speech, provided the funding program operates on a viewpoint-neutral basis. The Court rejected applying the germane-speech approach used in union and bar-association cases, but found that the student referendum mechanism could permit viewpoint-based funding or defunding and therefore required further proceedings. Justice Souter, joined by Justices Stevens and Breyer, concurred in the judgment but would have upheld the general funding scheme without establishing viewpoint neutrality as a constitutional requirement.