Eastern Michigan University sued over exhibit funding

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) -- A religious rights group has sued Eastern Michigan University on behalf of a student organization that was denied university funding for an exhibit that compares abortion to the Holocaust. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defending Freedom on Tuesday filed the lawsuit in federal court in Detroit against the Ypsilanti school. The lawsuit says that the school's student government should have allocated the roughly $5,000 that Students for Life had requested in February to sponsor the Genocide Awareness Project. The traveling exhibit visits universities across the United States. David Hacker, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, says: "Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas." Eastern Michigan University spokesman Geoff Larcom tells the Detroit Free Press that the school is reviewing the complaint. Published: Fri, Mar 22, 2013