Following years of legal disagreements, the Roman Catholic Foundation of the University of Wisconsin has once again filed a lawsuit against UW.

Formerly known as the University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation, RCF-UW filed the lawsuit against UW late Monday afternoon.

Alliance Defense Fund attorney David French, who is representing RCF-UW, said the lawsuit was filed because UW was not abiding by its settlement with the organization, which occurred last May.

In the settlement, UW approved $253,274 in student-segregated fees for RCF-UW and, in return, the organization agreed to separate itself from St. Paul's Catholic Church.

"The RCF and the university agreed to a settlement where the university would agree to fund the RCF's budget request for the 07-08 school year, and that they would then put [the RCF's] budget request through no greater scrutiny than any other group," French said in an interview with The Badger Herald.

Immediately after the settlement in May, however, French said UW began placing stipulations on certain budget items — including religious events and materials — and then denied several elements of the budget request that had been approved in the agreement.

"They indicated that they were denying them on grounds that are unlawful — not only in violation of the settlement agreement, but in violation of the Constitution," French said.

French added that RCF-UW didn't want to be treated as second-class citizens, and only want to be "treated the same as everyone else when they apply for funds from the system."

John Lucas, a spokesperson for UW, issued a statement Monday calling the lawsuit "baseless," and said UW has always treated RCF in the same manner as any other religious student organization.

"The university has always tried to strike a balance between supporting student activities and meeting our obligation under the law," the statement said. "Like the federal government, we are unable to fund inherently religious activities, such as worship, religious instruction or proselytization."

French said through the lawsuit the organization hopes to establish the rights and obligations of both the RCF-UW and the university.

"The goal here is to get some absolute clarity as to what the university's obligations are [and] what RCF's rights are," French said. "We could be looking at quite a lengthy litigation process because I'm not so certain that RCF would enter into any kind of agreement unless the assurance in the agreement were iron-clad and immediately enforceable."

As recently as last November, RCF-UW filed a lawsuit against UW citing violations of the organization’s First Amendment rights by not funding the group due to its religious affiliation.

An additional lawsuit was filed six days later after the Associated Students of Madison's Student Services Finance Committee denied the group contract status — a status that would allow RCF-UW additional funding.

Although RCF-UW was again denied contract status last Thursday, French said the decision to file the lawsuit was unrelated, saying "the timing of the lawsuit [was] actually dictated by the university's denials."

French said he was hopeful the lawsuit would provide clarity for both RCF-UW and UW.

RCF-UW Chair Beth Czarnecki said the organization held a board meeting Monday night to discuss the lawsuit, but declined to comment further on the issue.