This is a disturbing development. The full panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled yesterday (PDF link) that
college newspapers do not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment (subscription-only link, sorry).
What's worse (from my perspective as an Illinoisan, anyway), the case arose from a dispute about a college newspaper in Illinois:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit made the ruling in finding that a dean at Governors State University had immunity from a lawsuit filed by the editors of
The Innovator, the student newspaper at the Illinois institution.
The student editors had sued Patricia A. Carter, dean of student affairs and services at Governors State, after she told the newspaper's printer that a university official had to approve the content of the publication before it could be printed.
Ms. Carter, who did not dispute that claim, argued that the suit should be dismissed because of uncertainty about the constitutional protections to which college journalists are entitled. Her lawyers cited the 1988 Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which curtailed high-school students' First Amendment protections. Some free-speech groups have feared that the Hazelwood decision could be used to limit the rights of student journalists on college campuses.
A federal district court and a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit court both rejected Ms. Carter's bid for immunity, holding that Hazelwood did not apply to student newspapers at public colleges.
But in its 7-to-4 ruling on Monday, the full appeals court reversed that conclusion. The majority opinion, written by Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, says "that Hazelwood's framework applies to subsidized student newspapers at colleges as well as elementary and secondary schools."
The decision finds that the key in determining whether the Hazelwood precedent applies is whether or not the publication operates as "a designated public forum." Well, duh!
A newspaper is a public forum, and any newspaper without competition on campus (which is most of them, certainly at every college or university I've ever attended) is obviously going to be considered the "designated" forum for expression of opinions or news about the campus. The executive director of the Student Press Law Center (which offered legal assistance to the plaintiffs in this lawsuit), Mark Goodman, was dead accurate when he said that this ruling is only going to muddy the waters of First Amendment jurisprudence even further than they already are: "A school that is looking for an excuse to censor and wants some legal principles to hang its hat on will use this ruling as a justification."
Unlawful prior restraint, anyone? Step right up and get yours before it's too late.
Cross-posted from Musing's musings and SoapBlox Chicago.