The College Fix

UB ‘picking winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas,’ students’ attorney says

A conservative student group at the University at Buffalo recently filed an opening brief to an appeals court in an ongoing lawsuit, claiming the student government illegally discriminated against the Young Americans for Freedom chapter by derecognizing the group.

The brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit requests a preliminary injunction, which would immediately resume the operation of UB YAF and reinstate its rights as a student organization, pending the outcome of the case.

“[YAF and the students] have demonstrated a strong likelihood to succeed on the merits of their claims,” the opening brief states.

“Without a preliminary injunction, they cannot associate together and engage in the speech that they desire—much less on equal footing with other student organizations,” it states.

The conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the students. ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer told The Fix it is critical that free speech rights prevail in this case.

“All students, regardless of their political affiliations, should have access to generally available resources, and universities are constitutionally bound to protect these rights,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the University at Buffalo and its student government are picking winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas, first by punishing the group for its national affiliation with a conservative group, then by demanding that group leaders sign away their freedoms,” he told The Fix.

“Public universities can’t force student organizations to become an extension of the university or student government,” he said.

The brief states that a “preliminary injunction also favors the public interest by preserving First Amendment freedoms,” adding “As this Court has held, ‘securing First Amendment rights is in the public interest.’”

The brief also states there was no compelling interest for the university to regulate the club’s free speech, violating their First Amendment rights.

The conflict began when the school’s student government derecognized YAF over its affiliation with the national organization Young America’s Foundation.

Just two weeks after YAF hosted conservative commentator Michael Knowles, “the Student Association adopted a policy that prohibited certain recognized student groups from being a ‘chapter of or otherwise part of any outside organization,’” the brief states.

“Ever since Plaintiffs expressed a viewpoint with which the Student Association disagreed, Defendants have sought to punish them,” it states.

After ADF filed a federal lawsuit, the student government reversed the derecognition but imposed a new policy requiring student groups to waive legal rights, such as the ability to sue or manage finances independently, The College Fix previously reported.

YAF refused to comply, leading the SA to freeze over $6,000 in student-fee funding.

The Fix over the last two weeks reached out via email to Justin Hill, former president of UB YAF and one of the plaintiffs in the case, as well as UB’s Student Association, for comment. None responded.

The university declined to comment on this case last year when reached by The Fix.

However, in a 2023 Instagram post, former SA President Becky Paul-Odionhin defended the decision to derecognize YAF due to its affiliation with the national Young America’s Foundation.

“With so many different clubs under SA that SA needs to cater to and protect, it is imperative that we ensure one club’s actions under the direction of external affiliations does not destroy all the other club’s chances to continue performing their function and advocating for students,” she wrote.

University at Buffalo is not the only institution to target YAF chapters on campus.

In January, the YAF chapter at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University alleged that its school blocked multiple pro-life and pro-Israel events from taking place on campus, despite approving a pro-transgender event, The College Fix previously reported.

Earlier this year at the College of Sequoias, administrators removed sidewalk chalk messages by YAF, accusing the chapter of vandalism despite no policy against chalking. 

Then, in a recent victory for one YAF chapter, the student group got the University of Alabama to drop gender ideology from a nondiscrimination statement.

UA initially required student organizations to include gender ideology terms like “gender identity” and “sexual identity” in their nondiscrimination statements. YAF resisted, arguing it violated their First Amendment rights. The university granted YAF an exemption and eventually removed the gender ideology language from the required statement for all student groups. 

MORE: Black conservative YAF event canceled after university obstacles

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: U. Buffalo YAF members with speaker Michael Knowles; UB Young Americans for Freedom/Instagram

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