Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/09pdf/08-1371.pdf
Page Number: 61

Cite as:  561 U. S. ____ (2010) 

13 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

unlawful  discrimination  with  the  observation  that  the 
effects  of  the  discrimination  were  really  not  so  bad.    We 
have  never  before  taken  the  view  that  a  little  viewpoint 
discrimination  is  acceptable.  Nor  have  we  taken  this 
approach in other discrimination cases. 

C 

Finally, I must comment on the majority’s emphasis on 
funding.  According to the majority, CLS is “seeking what
is effectively a state subsidy,” ante, at 15, and the question
presented in this case centers on the “use of school funds,” 
ante, at 1.  In fact, funding plays a very small role in this 
case.  Most of what CLS sought and was denied—such as 
permission  to  set  up  a  table  on  the  law  school  patio—
would have been virtually cost free.  If every such activity
is regarded as a matter of funding, the  First Amendment
rights  of  students  at  public  universities  will  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  administration.    As  CLS  notes,  “[t]o  univer-
sity  students,  the  campus  is  their  world.  The  right  to
meet on campus and use campus channels of communica-
tion is at least as important to university students as the 
right to gather on the town square and use local communi-
cation forums is to the citizen.”  Reply Brief for Petitioner 
13. 

II 
To  appreciate  how  far  the  Court  has  strayed,  it  is  in-
structive  to  compare  this  case  with  Healy  v.  James,  408 
U. S.  169  (1972),  our  only  First  Amendment  precedent
involving  a  public  college’s  refusal  to  recognize  a  student 
group.  The  group  in  Healy  was  a  local  chapter  of  the 
Students  for  a  Democratic  Society  (SDS).    When  the  stu-
dents  who  applied  for  recognition  of  the  chapter  were
asked  by  a  college  committee  whether  they  would  “ ‘re-
spond to issues of violence as other S.D.S. chapters have,’ ” 
their  answer  was  that  their  “ ‘action  would  have  to  be