SUNY Cortland’s Leftist Student Government Agrees to Pay Settlement After Discriminating Against These Conservative Students

Gabriella Delorenzo and Megan Rothmund, conservative students at the State University of New York Cortland (SUNY), wanted to start a Turning Point USA chapter at the school.

The Student Government’s Student Senate had other ideas. They refused to recognize the group as an official club because they disagreed with the conservative group’s opinions.

Leftists though they are, the students had to know that refusing to recognize the club based on viewpoint was unconstitutional. If they didn’t, they certainly know now.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit against the school on behalf of Delorenzo, Rothmund, and the Turning Point chapter.

Not wanting to drag the matter into court, SUNY Cortland settled the lawsuit out of court. ADF announced that the school officially recognized the chapter in March, but the student government “failed to fully address its unconstitutional policy that allowed the conservative group to be denied recognized status in the first place.”

Still facing litigation at that point, the student government finally changed the policy to respect the First Amendment rights of all students — including the conservative ones. The student government and the school itself will pay the chapter $42,000. As of Monday, ADF considers the lawsuit settled.

“Colleges are meant to be marketplaces of ideas where students learn to respect and defend diverse beliefs, but many college officials are encouraging students to silence opposing views,” said Mathew Hoffman, an ADF attorney.

One of ADF’s clients reached a settlement in April with The Governor’s School of North Carolina after he was fired for criticizing the racially divisive “critical race theory.” Dr. David Phillips, the fired English professor, filed a lawsuit. As part of the settlement agreement, the school paid him close to four years of his annual stipend and adopted a policy that respects the free speech of faculty.

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

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