Free Sample Essays > Law & Government
Animal Rights
As two students trying to aquire a good education, Charlie Brown and Susan Green have been put in an awkward situation. They are students at a major state university and are required to pay certain fees for each semester. Some of the fees that they pay every semester go to student organizations that they so not want to support.
From my perspective, Brown and Green looked into where their money was going. They came to find out that fees they were paying were going to support organizations that they didn’t. Brown and Green filed suit saying that fees they were required to pay were violating their first amendment rights.
I agree with Brown and Green. College tuition is always on a steady rise. There seems to be new fees always appearing. I think that they were right in filing suit. I will state my reasons in the following.
The first amendment to the Constitution gives the citizens of the United States freedom of speech, press, the rights of assembly and petition, and also states that Congress, basically, can not interfere. The organizations that Brown and Green disagreed with have the right to say what they want but they do not have the right to be supported by people that do not agree. The United States has several interest groups that the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Organization could have received funding to bring in speakers from. Students that disagree should not be required to pay fees to organizations they disagree with. It should be an option. The school administrators know what groups get what and how much. When a student registers, he or she should be asked, “Would you like to pay $35 to go to these (and have a list) organizations?”
“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…” I think that any school does have a compelling interest to promote open expression but as a state school, they are clearly putting the fourteenth amendment aside. The privileges of the students are not being dealt with. The “state” school is requiring students to pay or they can’t go to school there. That is clearly against the first and fourteenth amendments. I could understand if it was a private school but it is a state funded school and those amendments apply to the states.
Also, with talking about non-profit organizations, why are people getting paid to speak? Donations should be accepted and no fees should be tacked on when registering.
If fees are added on, students should know what the fees are going toward.
I agree with Brown and Green. Their first amendments rights are being breeched. Take a newspaper for example. There are commentaries in the paper. They are in there but that doesn’t mean I have to support what is included in them or read them. As citizens of the United Stated of America, we were given rights [next page]