Conservative groups reach settlement in case alleging bias by UC Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley, has reached a settlement with conservative groups who sued the university over allegations that the school discriminates against conservative speakers.

As part of the settlement, the university will make changes to its major events policy and pay $70,000 to the attorneys for the Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans, who brought the lawsuit. 

{mosads}The settlement comes after U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney in April allowed the lawsuit to move forward. The groups brought the lawsuit in April of last year after the university canceled a scheduled speech by conservative pundit Ann Coulter, citing safety concerns. 

Other conservative speakers, including Milo Yiannopoulos, have also had their events canceled following campus protests. 

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof in a statement denied any wrongdoing on the part of the university, saying that its event policy “has been validated.”

Mogulof called the outcome “all but indistinguishable from what a courtroom victory would have looked like” and said the settlement was the least expensive way for the university to move forward.

“While we regret the time, effort and resources that have been expended successfully defending the constitutionality of UC Berkeley’s event policy, this settlement means the campus will not need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in unrecoverable defense costs to prove that UC Berkeley has never discriminated on the basis of viewpoint,” Mogulof added.

The changes the university will make to its events policy include adding language to define what is considered a major event and altering the approval process for event promotional materials. 

The Young America’s Foundation also touted the settlement as a victory on Monday. Foundation spokesman Spencer Brown said in a statement that the university “finally felt the heat and saw the light of their unconstitutional censorship.”

“YAF’s landmark victory for free expression—long squelched by Berkeley’s scheming administrators who weaponized flawed policies to target conservatives—shows that the battle for freedom undertaken by YAF on campuses nationwide is a necessary one,” Brown added.