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Chicago: Free Speech Case in Court of Federal Appeals
November 27, 2004
PEN USA would like to draw attention to the case Hosty v. Carter currently under consideration by a federal appeals court in Chicago.
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PEN USA would like to draw attention to the case Hosty v. Carter currently under consideration by a federal appeals court in Chicago.
A panel of eleven judges in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard arguments on January 8, 2004 in a case that will determine the level of First Amendment protection allowed to college students.
The original case Hosty v. Carter was brought against the administration at Governors State University in Illinois by student journalists regarding the school newspaper in early 2001.
The dean had told the school’s newspaper printer to hold future issues until the content was approval by school officials. The paper had published stories and editorials critical of the administration, and Dean Patricia Carter decided to deny the newspaper publishing rights without prior approval of the content. The administrators argued that the students’ First Amendment rights were no grater than those of teenagers in high school.
Student journalists Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba sued the school in January of 2001. In November of that year, a federal district court allowed the case to go against the dean. However, in early 2002, the university appealed the decision and Hosty v. Carter went up on the chopping block.
Illinois Attorney General James Ryan asked the appeals court to extend the appeal to include expanding the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier limits the First Amendment rights of high school newspapers. This appeals case seeks to not only overturn Hosty v. Carter but to expand Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier to limit First Amendment rights of university students as well as high school students.
First Amendment groups quickly filed an amicus brief, saying “such restrictions have no place at a college or university” and that they were “gravely concerned” about the decision.
In April 2003, a three-judge panel ruled in support of college press freedom, and refused to grant Dean Carter immunity, and found that Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier was not the appropriate standard for censorship of student media at the university level. This decision, unfortunately, has now been vacated due to a petition filed on behalf of Dean Carter by the Illinois Attorney General. In June of 2003, a majority of an appeals court panel vacated the earlier April decision.
PEN USA joins the Student Press Law Center, the Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Advisers Inc., the College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers, the Community College Journalism Association, the Society for Collegiate Journalists, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Society of Professional Journalists in supporting university freedom of press.
If the appeal case passes, it will set a precedent which limits the First Amendment rights not only student newspapers but all school-sponsored actives such as films, speakers and student government on any public college campus. All events could be legally subject to prior approval and censorship.
PEN USA hopes that the federal appeals court will not expand Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier and not overturn Hosty v. Carter, and thus protect the First Amendment rights of a huge percentage of Americans: those who attend a public university.
Stephen Rohde, Vice President of PEN USA’s Freedom to Write Committee and a First Amendment lawyer, said, he Hazelwood decision was a limited exception giving high school authorities some authority to oversee high school newspapers. It would set a dangerous precedent to expand Hazelwood to impose restrictions on college newspapers. What’s next? Government authorities pre-approving The New York Times? College students are old enough to vote and serve in the military. They don’t need to be coddled when it comes to what they write or read in their college newspapers. Only libel and privacy laws, applicable to the general press, should apply to college newspapers. The First Amendment demands nothing less.”
For more information: http://www.splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=49