BOULDER, Colo.—An attorney says he won’t pursue legal action for now against the University of Colorado over a $3,000 fee charged to three student groups hosting an appearance by former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and fired CU professor Ward Churchill.
Attorney David Lane says he’s refraining from taking court action because the university has agreed not to charge the students before the event. Lane says the fee is exorbitant and an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.
CU-Boulder spokesman Bronson Hilliard says the groups aren’t being singled out and it’s standard to charge the fee to cover security costs for large events. He says the students will still get charged later.
Lane says if that happens the school should send the bill to him so he “could show them the price of freedom.”
Ayers and Churchill are scheduled to speak at a March 5 event.
Ayers, a University of Illinois-Chicago professor, featured prominently in Republican efforts to thwart Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Churchill was fired on plagiarism allegations after he equated some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi.
