Auburn pays $29,000 to end suit over white nationalist

Published 9:57 am Monday, May 15, 2017

BIRMINGHAM (AP) — Auburn University is paying almost $30,000 to end a lawsuit that cleared the way for a white nationalist to speak on campus.

A university statement says officials will pay $29,000 in legal fees for Cameron Padgett. The Georgia man filed suit to reverse the school’s decision barring Richard Spencer from speaking at Auburn last month.

A federal judge in Montgomery dismissed the lawsuit in an order Friday after attorneys for Padgett and Auburn filed a joint agreement.

Spencer is a spokesman for the white nationalist movement, and his appearances often draw critics. Auburn rented a room to Padgett for a speech by Spencer on April 18 and then reversed its decision, prompting the lawsuit.

A judge ruled that Auburn had to let Spencer speak, and several hundred people attended.