FREE SPEECH FOR YOUR CO-STARS, BUT NOT FOR YOUR CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS.

Just before LaCrosse State chancellor Joe Gow was removed from his post for conduct unbecoming, the university he headed got into trouble for attempting to thought-police the Young America's Foundation.

Young America’s Foundation sent a demand letter to the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse Thursday afternoon asserting that the university has violated the First Amendment rights of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter on campus.

YAF is represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

The letter, addressed to the program coordinator for student organizations, highlights the unconstitutional conduct of the university in requiring YAF to adopt a so-called “inclusivity statement,” which includes clauses stating that YAF affirms the Left’s transgender agenda and stands with those who illegally migrate to the United States, among other compelled assertions.

That "inclusivity statement" is a secular version of the Apostle's Creed, which might say "apostolic and catholic," meaning "intellectual tradition and inclusive of all believers," but, in the same way that a heretic might be asked to recant or be excommunicated by the Pope, a heretic might be asked to recant or be excluded from participation.

The “inclusivity statement” in question includes a value-laden recitation of political and social policy positions dictated by the university that run contrary to conservative beliefs and biological reality.

The letter also points out that the Supreme Court has held that a public university may have requirements for recognition, such as a rule that prospective groups affirm their intention to comply with reasonable campus regulations. However, the university’s “inclusivity statement” goes beyond this reasonable requirement and instead seeks to force YAF to affirmatively express a set of beliefs and positions.

The letter concludes by requesting that UW-La Crosse immediately remove the “inclusivity statement” condition on YAF’s recognition. Failure to do so will result in a lawsuit filed in federal court.

As the situation unfolds, it remains to be seen how UW-La Crosse will respond to these demands. The outcome of this case may very well have significant implications for the rights of student organizations on college campuses across the country.

The good news: the lawfare worked.  "'[The] referenced statement is not a condition for YAF’s recognition as a student organization, effective immediately,' the University of Wisconsin’s general counsel, Quinn Williams, wrote in a Friday morning email to the chapter’s legal representation."  The inclusivity statement is the work of the student government, which, in common with student governments everywhere, is a safe space for the leftist hive mind, and wherever the hive mind gathers, the censorious impulse manifests itself, and should the student government have some money to allocate, conforming to the purity test might be a precondition for getting the financial support.

The simplest way to defeat the purity tests is to call them out for the limitations on inquiry they are, rather than to make the case that "conservative" is a "marginalized identity" on campus, even the campus of a converted teacher's college that caters to the social set at Wisconsin high schools.