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Hosty v. Carter:
The Latest Battle for College Press Freedom

© 2005 Student Press Law Center

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in a decision on June 20, 2005, said the Supreme Court's 1988 Hazelwood decision limiting high school student free expression rights could extend to college and university campuses.

The case, Hosty v. Carter, pits student editors at Governors State University in Illinois against school administrators and the Illinois Attorney General's office, who argue that the students' First Amendment rights were no greater than those of teenagers in high school.

See our news stories, below.

The Facts:

Governors State University was sued by student journalists Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba in January 2001 after Dean Patricia Carter told the newspaper's printer in October 2000 to hold future issues until a school official had given approval to the student newspaper's contents. The paper, the Innovator, had published news stories and editorials critical of the administration. Carter's directive was issued despite a university policy that said the student newspaper staff "will determine content and format of their respective publications without censorship or advance approval."

In November 2001, a federal district court allowed the case to go forward against Dean Carter and in early 2002, the university appealed.

The case generated national attention in part because of the controversial argument made before the appeals court by the state attorney general in defending the school's right to censor the student newspaper. Illinois Attorney General James Ryan asked the appeals court to extend the Supreme Court's 1988 Hazelwood decision, which limited the First Amendment protections for high school students, to public college student expression.

In a friend-of-the court brief filed in the case, a coalition of media and First Amendment groups said "such restrictions have no place at a college or university" and that they were "gravely concerned" about the consequences if the court were to adopt the state's argument.

A three-judge panel of the court handed down a decision on April 10, 2003, that offered strong support for college press freedom. Hosty v. Carter, 325 F.3d 945 (7th Cir. 2003). The court refused to grant Dean Carter qualified immunity, finding that Hazelwood was not the appropriate standard for censorship of college student media and pointing to the more than three decades of law providing strong First Amendment protection to the college student press.

A copy of the this decision is available from the court's Web site in PDF format. However, this decision has now been vacated.

The Illinois Attorney General filed a petition on behalf of Patricia Carter for a rehearing en banc before the federal appeals court. On June 25, 2003, a majority of the active judges of the court granted that petition and vacated the three-judge panel's decision.

See a sample page from the Innovator


And 11-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments on Jan. 8, 2004, and handed down a decision on June 20, 2005, supporting the university.

Without defining the First Amendment rights college journalists are entitled to, the seven-judge majority of the court said that that the analysis used by the Supreme Court in the Hazelwood decision was applicable at the public college and university level.ææThe court said that a court confronted with an act of student newspaper censorship by a college official must first determine if the publication was a "designated public forum" where students had been given the authority to make the content decisions. The majority said that the fact a publication might be extracurricular was not determinative of its public forum status.

Second, the court held that even assuming that the Innovator was a public forum, the dean who censored the publication was entitled to qualified immunity from damages for infringing the students' rights because she could not have reasonably known that the limitations of the Hazelwood decision did not apply to college and university student publications.


A copy of the this decision is available from the court's Web site in PDF format.

Seventh Circuit Decision Threatens Student Press Freedom
FIRE Policy Statement Condemns Hosty v. Carter as Supreme Court Is Asked to Intervene

September 19, 2005

FIRE Press Release
PHILADELPHIA, September 19, 2005â€â€