ContextAccording to Kaplin and Lee (2006), collegiate student organizations provide students with opportunities to acquire and develop leadership skills and to pursue assorted non-academic interests. It also integrates their formal education with secondary academic programming (Kaplin & Lee, 2006). For these reasons, students are often encouraged to join a student organization. In addition to joining such a group, because of the First Amendment, students have the right to organize and join such groups, and university administrators are required by law to grant them that right. This is especially true for students who attend public schools. Students at private universities do not have the constitutional right to organize a student organization (Snider, 2004). However, many private universities will grant organizational rights to students through their own regulations, and in that case, the private school administration may choose to be guided by First Amendment principles in relation to these student organizations (Kaplin & Lee, 2006). Purpose Throughout the history of student organizations, many court cases have been tried in which a party disagreed with a fundamental principle in relation to a student organization, or in which a party intervened in direct violation of a specific rule implemented by the school, as regards a student organization. Some areas of interest include; (a) the right to be recognized, (b) the right of association, (c) rights involving discrimination, (d) and rights associated with religion and freedom of speech. This article will briefly look at some of these cases; it will also explore the different rights entrusted to students who belong to student organizations. Recognition, Association and Funding In Healy v. James, 408 U....... middle of document ...... higher education. Wiley. com. Lake, P. F. (2013). The rights and duties of the modern university: who takes the risks of university life? (2nd ed.) Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Lake, P. F. (2011). Foundations of Higher Education Law and Policy: Basic legal rules, concepts and principles for student affairs. Washington, DC: NASPA.Schoettle, F. P. (1971). The equal protection clause in public education. Columbia Law Review, 71(8), 1355-1419.Snider, M. A. (2004). Viewpoint discrimination by public universities: Religious student organizations and violations of university nondiscrimination policies. Washington. & Lee L. Rev., 61, 841Widmar v. Vincent, 454 US 263, 102 S. Ct. 269, 70 L. Ed. 2d 440 (1981). Retrieved from: http://scholar.google.com.libproxy.clemson.edu/scholar_case?case=7188907281892258516&q=widmar+v.+vincent&hl=en&as_sdt=6,41