By now, it is unsurprising to see courts correctly rule against college administrators who violate rights to free speech, association, and religious exercise. It is heartening, though, to see a federal district judge go further, by holding individual administrators personally responsible for these abuses.

In Intervarsity Christian Fellowship v. Wayne State University, federal Judge Robert Cleland ruled that the state school discriminated against the Intervarsity student group for requiring that its leaders be Christians. In withdrawing Intervarsity’s campus privileges, Wayne State treated that group differently from many similarly situated groups that require their leaders to possess specific characteristics or profess particular beliefs. Cleland smacked the school down, hard and convincingly, citing extensive case law in the process.