Posted on 11/23/2005 3:31:46 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
(Says could hurt if lawsuit filed)
This is one legal fight Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager will sit out.
Lautenschlager, who has used her office to go after oil companies, hospitals and even other government agencies, is declining to step into a debate over a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire policy banning resident assistants from holding Bible studies in their dorms.
By refusing to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of the policy, the Democrat avoids taking a position on a controversial issue as she gears up for a tough re-election campaign for a second term as the state's top law enforcement official.
Conservatives, including a Republican running for governor, have repeatedly called the policy an attack on students' right to practice religion. Liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have said it was needed for the separation of church and state.
UW System President Kevin Reilly asked Lautenschlager last week for her opinion on whether the policy violated students' First Amendment rights. Lautenschlager's top aide, Dan Bach, turned down Reilly's request in a letter Monday.
Bach said if the attorney general were to call the policy unconstitutional, her opinion would compromise the office's ability to represent the state should someone sue over the policy. "In effect we would be conceding liability on behalf of the state," he wrote.
Without help from Lautenschlager, UW System spokesman Doug Bradley said Reilly will seek counsel from university lawyers and regents as he reviews the policy. He said Reilly expected to announce any changes next week.
"We want to take a look at this to figure out what's the best way to go so that everybody's rights are respected," Bradley said Tuesday.
Reilly, in a letter to Lautenschlager last week, said the policy bans resident assistants from leading activities like partisan politics, religious studies or sales party events in their dorm rooms. Reilly said the policy is meant to stop RAs from pressuring students they supervise into participating.
In his response, Deputy Attorney General Bach said he did not want to predict "the results of any legal analysis" but raised questions about the policy's constitutionality. He asked why the policy is limited to dormitories on a single campus and whether other university employees are subjected to similar restrictions.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, a Green Bay Republican who is running for governor in 2006, said Bach's letter is more evidence the school's practice "is both unreasonable and unconstitutional." He renewed his request that the UW System allow the Bible studies.
Lance Steiger, a senior resident assistant at UW-Eau Claire, challenged the policy after a university administrator warned him in July and again in September that he could face discipline if he continued to hold Bible studies in his room.
The official, associate housing director Deborah Newman, said Steiger's duty to encourage people to participate in the studies conflicted with his responsibility to create a welcoming environment for other students. She said he could attend Bible studies organized by others in his hall and lead the events elsewhere on campus.
I'd quit being an RA and hold Bible studies in my room 24/7, but that's just me.
What do you think the chances are that if this student was Muslim and rolling out his prayer rug five times a day in the dorm hallway to better face Mecca, that no one would bat an eye? Hmmmm? Hmmmm?
FYI, if Freedom OF Religion, not Freedom FROM Religion interests you.
I heard that the UW regents are considering a new sign to be placed at the entrance of all campi..."Arbeit Macht Frei". (Admittedly the source is less than stellar)
Thanks, of all the things going on in dorms, we should worry about Bible studies. Go figure.
One step away from a tyrannical government.
that's a wonderful idea1. I have ZERO doubt that GOD would honor and provide for a child of his that did this.
Citing the words that were over the entrance of the Auschwitz death camp a perfect encapsulation of both the fascism of the anti-Christian Left and the sort of fate that awaits America if it continues to regard good as evil and vice-versa.
That is great news! Good for him!
That sign was above most, if not all, concentration camps. I saw it at Dachau and have seen it in old news reels on numerous other camps. (Translated: Work will make you free)
The literal translation is "work brings freedom."
If WI lesbians ask the AG to join their parade in support of their alleged rights...what do you think she'd do?...
Ooops....guess what she did...
We know where she stands on abortion too....don't we?
"...Steiger's duty to encourage people to participate in the studies..."
Say WHAT?
"duty" to encourage people to participate? Did I miss something? Did the RA take a religious vow that mandates this "duty"?
The real "oppression" that might cause some to feel "unwelcome" is the insistance that there are moral RIGHT and WRONGS. This, of course, counters the behavior that many engage in while a resident.
Follow up maybe pingout.
Exactly, the RA is a state employee, and his room is his university funded office. As long they disallow all political activity to be run from the RA's room, and allow them to pursue their interests like any other student when off duty and out of their room, I don't have a problem with it.
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