The Constitution Court ruled Sunday night that ASUO Sen. Ben Bowman violated viewpoint neutrality in OSPIRG’s budget hearing held several weeks ago, a decision that  invalidates the 3-2 vote by the ACFC in support of OSPIRG’s budget and means another vote must be held.
ASUO Sen. Ben Rudin filed a grievance against Bowman regarding his statements made at the OSPIRG hearing, which expressed support for the organization.
“Do we believe that students should fight for a better world? Resounding yes. These aren’t partisan issues. They are problems students have vested futures in” Bowman said in the meeting.  “I as an individual cannot address those problems like I wish I could. I want to know that while I’m not able to work on those issues at least there’s a group that is working on these issues.”
The majority of the court said that these statements were in violation of viewpoint neutrality. In the decision, the group defined the phrase as the U.S. Supreme Court has defined it.
“Funding decisions must be based on viewpoint neutral factors such as fiscal responsibility, the level of services provided to students and the relevance to the purpose of the incidental fee,” the constitutional court said.
Due to the decision, the vote made on the OSPIRG budget was found invalid. Rudin stated that this decision was a landmark one.
“I was pleased that Con Court agreed with what I have been saying all along, that we must allocate student fee money based on services provided, not viewpoint of the organization,” Rudin said.
Bowman intends on appealing the decision. He will appeal on the grounds that Con Court did not give him seven days to respond to an amended grievance put forth by Rudin.
“I fundamentally disagree with this decision and I think they missed the point,” Bowman said.
Another vote on the OSPIRG budget will be held this Wednesday evening. Bowman will still be allowed to place a vote.