High Court Won’t Review Campus Suit : Dismissal of Women’s Study Suit Upheld

A lawsuit against the Women’s Studies Program at California State University, Long Beach, suffered a quiet death this week when the U. S. Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s decision dismissing it.

“We think it’s the right action,” said Gene Asher, executive assistant to university President Stephen Horn. “The people who initiated the lawsuit were not part of the campus community and we don’t think they had a very accurate view.”

It was the plaintiffs’ non-university status, in fact, that had prompted a Superior Court judge to dismiss the 3-year-old lawsuit, ruling that because they had no university standing they had no right to sue.

Filed by 16 individuals, including the state president of Phyllis Schlafly’s conservative Eagle Forum, a former Republican state senator, several former CSULB students and various other taxpayers and residents, the suit alleged that the women’s program was being dominated by feminists who systematically excluded traditional viewpoints on ethics and morals.