The student paper in question here is a satirical publication. It’s amazing that the school wasted such a huge sum of money on this battle.
The College Fix reports:
University of California spent $800,000 trying to cripple student newspaper that mocked ‘safe spaces’The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scolded the University of California-San Diego a year ago for trying to shut down a satirical student newspaper by defunding all campus media.It reinstated the First Amendment lawsuit by The Koala, which had drawn the ire of student government leaders and administrators for mocking “safe spaces.”The parties settled last month, and thanks to a public records request by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, we know exactly how much this poorly constructed attempt at censorship cost California taxpayers: $824,317.86.As FIRE said Friday, “that’s just north of 1,820 times the amount of money [$452.80] The Koala was denied under the unconstitutional funding change.”The settlement gives The Koala $12,500 and a minimum $1,500 reimbursement for its print costs from the student government each academic year as long as it fulfills the requirements for official recognition. Its lawyers at the region’s ACLU affiliate get $150,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.Then there’s the money the University of California spent on its own lawyers, which makes the settlement look like chump change: $662,317.86.The first invoice from Chicago’s Schiff Hardin is from May 24, 2016, a week before The Koala actually filed suit. The law firm would submit 30 more stretching to Oct. 6 of this year, ranging from a low of $94 on May 4, 2017 to a high of $110,000 on April 21 this year. About half the invoices are five figures. There’s also an invoice from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe on Nov. 8, 2019 for more than $150,000.
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