PRESS RELEASE: Supreme Court announces it will not hear appeal in college censorship case
Ruling means college students in three Midwestern states will have extra challenges in defending their press freedom
© 2006 Student Press Law Center
February 21, 2006
WASHINGTON,
D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will
not hear a case that questioned the authority of administrators at an Illinois
university to censor a student newspaper that published articles critical of the
school.
The Court rejected a request by former student journalists
at Governors State University in Illinois to review a lower court decision that
could give university officials in three Midwestern states the authority to
censor some college student speech based on a legal standard that had previously
been applied only to high school and elementary school students and
teachers.
As is its usual practice when ruling on whether or not to accept a
case, the Court did not issue a written opinion to explain its
decision.
The Court's ruling lets stand a June 2005 decision by the
7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that could open the door to providing
university administrators with authority to censor school-sponsored speech by
public college students and faculty, including speech in some student
newspapers, at schools in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The
appeals court ruled that the Supreme Court's 1988 decision in
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier,
which has been used to restrict the First Amendment rights of elementary and
high school students and teachers, applied to colleges and universities as well.
The appeals court decision was in stark contrast to over three decades of law
that has provided strong free speech protection to college student journalists
and protected them from censorship by school officials unhappy with what student
media published.
By refusing to hear the case, the Court lets stand
the extension to colleges of a censorship standard it created to oversee speech by students
as young as five years old. The 7th
Circuit's decision is only binding in three states and is in direct conflict
with decisions of other state and federal courts around the
country.
Today's ruling disappointed student press advocates.
"The appeals court decision last year turned on its head the
traditional belief that a university is a 'marketplace of ideas' where speech
from all sides is not only tolerated, but encouraged. We hoped that the Supreme
Court would step in to reaffirm that important principle," said Mark Goodman,
executive director of the Student Press Law Center. "We are very disappointed
that the Court left that issue to be decided another day."
A group of
15 national student and professional news media organizations led by the Student
Press Law Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the students in
October urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, and warning that the 7th
Circuit's decision posed a threat to free speech on America's college and
university campuses. Similar briefs were filed by groups of journalism educators
and civil rights organizations.
Today's ruling comes more than five
years after a dean at Governors State University demanded that she or another
university official be allowed to read and approve the student newspaper,
the Innovator, prior to publication.
The newspaper's student editors, who had published stories and editorials
critical of the administration, refused the administrator's demands. The
Innovator has not been published
since.
Legal experts point out that although today's decision may
encourage more efforts by college administrators to censor, the lower court's
decision still recognizes that college student publications can be established in a way that gives students strong First Amendment
protections.
The Student Press Law Center is encouraging students in
Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin to call upon their schools to pledge their
commitment to free speech by explicitly designating their student media as
"public forums" where student editors have the right to make editorial decisions
free from administrative interference. Since the appeals court decision in
June, a small number of schools in the 7th Circuit have done so, but it is
expected that others will follow as student and faculty groups demand such
action. (See http://www.splc.org/publicforumcolleges
for details.)
"This ruling changes the playing field. People in
Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin who care about free expression need to take
steps today to defend a free student press if they want to ensure a free press
will be around tomorrow," Goodman said.
Goodman said it is important
to make clear that today's ruling leaves free expression protection limited only
in the three states of the 7th Circuit. The strong First Amendment protection
afforded the college student press by courts in the rest of the country remains
unchanged, he says.
But no matter where they are located, Goodman
warns, public college or university administrators looking to crack down on
their student media had better be ready for a fight.
"This battle is
far from over," he said. "By refusing to take this case, the Supreme Court has
postponed the legal conclusion for another day. But the Student Press Law Center
stands ready to help college student journalists at any school in the country
who find their right to publish freely under attack. We will not hesitate to
take other schools to court in defense of student press freedom."
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