(The College Fix)—St. Cloud State University and Students United are facing a lawsuit over a mandatory fee, which the plaintiff argues violates her First Amendment rights.
The federal lawsuit, brought by the Liberty Justice Center and the Upper Midwest Law Center on behalf of Tayah Lackie, argues that this mandatory fee to support Students United’s political activism violates Lackie and other students’ First Amendment Rights.
The state filed a motion to dismiss on Monday.
Lackie only found out that she was funding this political speech after she graduated. She opposes initiatives like “FCK Student Debt” given that she “paid [her] own way without taking on debt.”
The lawsuit says Students United is “a private corporation created for the purpose of engaging in political speech, which advocates for and takes positions on controversial policies and legislation, and which purports to speak on all students’ behalf.”
Attorneys for Lackey believe that this collection of fees is a form of compelled speech and therefore violates the First Amendment rights of students.
Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, told The Fix via email “a victory in this case would establish that state colleges and universities cannot force students to pay fees to an activist group just to be allowed to attend.”
The current fee is “80 cents per credit,” according to Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit.
But Lackie said she received minimal information that the university was charging her to fund the group. It was only in 2024 that she saw the charges on her “account statement” that showed fees deducted. “Apart from those account statements, neither St. Cloud State nor Students United informed Ms. Lackie that she was required to pay fees to Students United,” the lawsuit alleges.
The money goes to the Minnesota State University Student Association, also called Students United, for lobbying activities. This includes pushing for a taxpayer bailout of student loans.
The filed complaint reveals that Students United “receives most of its funding– 76%, according to its projection for Fiscal Year 2024– from students’ mandatory fees.”
The complaint also says that “students… are not informed of any right they have not to associate with Students United” and are not “given any opportunity to waive any right not to associate with Students United.”
Minnesota State spokesman Doug Anderson told The College Fix the universities collect the fees by law.
He told The Fix that “Minnesota Statute Section 136F.22 requires Minnesota State to recognize one statewide student association for the state universities, makes all state university students members of that organization, and requires each state university to collect fees on that organization’s behalf.”
Anderson said via email that “St. Cloud and other Minnesota State universities [are] follow[ing] that statute” when collecting fees for Students United.
The media representative of Students United did not answer two of The Fix’s calls and a voice mail.
It also did not respond to an email sent in the past several weeks, seeking comment on the lawsuit.