Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/09pdf/08-1371.pdf
Page Number: 31.0

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

25 

Opinion of the Court 

115 (CLS maintained a Yahoo! message group to dissemi­
nate  information  to  students.);  Christian  Legal  Society  v. 
Walker, 453 F. 3d 853, 874 (CA7 2006) (Wood, J., dissent­
ing)  (“Most  universities  and  colleges,  and  most  college­
aged students, communicate through email, websites, and 
hosts like MySpace . . . .  If CLS had its own website, any 
student at the school with access to Google—that is, all of 
them—could  easily  have  found  it.”).    See  also  Brief  for 
Associated Students of the University of California, Hast­
ings  College  of  Law  as  Amicus  Curiae  14–18  (describing 
host  of  ways  CLS  could  communicate  with  Hastings’  stu­
dents outside official channels). 

Private groups, from fraternities and sororities to social 
clubs  and  secret  societies,  commonly  maintain  a  presence
at  universities  without  official  school  affiliation.21    Based  
on  the  record  before  us,  CLS  was  similarly  situated:  It 
hosted  a  variety  of  activities  the  year  after  Hastings  de­
nied it recognition, and the number of students attending
those  meetings  and  events  doubled.  App.  224,  229–230.
“The  variety  and  type  of  alternative  modes  of  access  pre­
sent  here,”  in  short,  “compare  favorably  with  those  in
other  [limited  public]  forum  cases  where  we  have  upheld 
restrictions on access.”  Perry Ed. Assn., 460 U. S., at 53– 
54.  It  is  beyond  dissenter’s  license,  we  note  again,  see 
supra,  at  21,  n. 17,  constantly  to  maintain  that  nonrecog­
nition  of  a  student  organization  is  equivalent  to  prohibit­
ing its members from speaking. 

—————— 

21 See, e.g., Baker, Despite Lack of University Recognition, Pi Kappa
Theta Continues to Grow, The New Hampshire, Sept. 28, 2009, pp. 1, 5
(unrecognized  fraternity  able  to  grow  despite  severed  ties  with  the
University of New Hampshire); Battey, Final Clubs Provide Controver­
sial  Social  Outlet,  Yale  Daily  News,  Apr.  5,  2006,  pp. 1,  4  (Harvard 
social clubs, known as “final clubs,” “play a large role in the experience
of  . . .  students”  even  though  “they  became  completely  disassociated
from the university in 1984”).