Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Wisconsin

Re: racially infammatory emails on campus

Students usually have contracts with their universities which limit behavior that might otherwise be legal. Normally, these contracts require students to obey the university's rules of conduct. Presumably sending this particular message violated those rules. Since we are talking about a public university its rules must comply with the Constitution, but I don't have any information from which I could say whether there is a constitutional problem here.

There are also laws which forbid threats or various other types of verbal acts. If the text of this email ran afoul of such a law, the sender can be prosecuted. There is a real chance that such a law will violate the First Amendment, either facially or at least as applied to a given case.

Unfortunately, your message does not reveal what the email said (and it probably was wise of you not to repeat it). It also does not reveal what your university's rules of conduct forbid, what statute the student is charged with violating or what that statute says. Without such information it is not possible to offer you a more specific answer.

Before I close I want to make another point. It is unlilkely that the sender has been ordered to appear before the D.A.'s office. He may have been ordered to appear in court where a D.A. will represent the state, or he may instead have to appear before a grand jury where a D.A. will question him. There are other possibilities as well, but I think you are mistaken about what he will have to do. A more accurate statement of the facts might make it possible to give you a better answer.