Statutory Interpretation – Student Government Elections

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: UWM Student Association, et al. v. Michael Lovell

Case No.: 17-2499

Officials:  WOOD, Chief Judge, and KANNE and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Statutory Interpretation – Student Government Elections

Student government elections rarely produce federal litigation. Wisconsin law, though, gives students at state universities rights to organize themselves and to run their governments, which have the power to spend substantial funds. Wis. Stat. § 36.09(5). The combination of those state-law rights and fiscal powers can produce federal claims, even if the stakes are more modest than in most other disputes over state and local governance.

This case arises from a long-running feud between rival student governments at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, commonly known as UWM. Plaintiffs are the UWM Student Association and several former and current UWM students. Plaintiffs allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to interfere with student governance. They allege that the UWM administration excluded certain students from student government by unseating the legitimately elected officers and replacing them over several years with a supposedly “puppet” student government with a similar name, the defendant Student Association at UWM. After considerable procedural fencing— resulting from plaintiffs’ clumsy efforts to pursue an unmanageable complaint with 44 plaintiffs suing 37 defendants for claims spanning several years of student politicking—the district court dismissed the suit with prejudice. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions to reinstate certain claims, though it is clear that those claims are likely to encounter other substantial obstacles on remand.

Affirmed in part. Remanded and reversed in part.

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