The issue, to both sides of the case, is First Amendment rights. The plaintiffs, students who object to the allocation of the fee to certain advocacy groups, cite their First Amendment right of free speech and assembly in desiring not to be compelled to fund organizations whose missions they detest. The university also cites the right to free speech, which it claims would be abridged by virtue of the advocacy groups' loss of funding. The university is appealing a decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the students. Recently, for example, N.C. Central President Julius Chambers objected to a plan on that campus to increase the mandatory fee by 12.9 percent.
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