1. Facts of Case

In the case Hosty vs Carter (2005), http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1316383.html, the administration at Governors State University in Illinois shut down Innovator, a college student run
newspaper, after the students refused to let administration approve publications before they were published. Three students then sued the University because their First Amendment rights were being violated.

2. Legal Issue

The issue brought before us is whether or not the administration has the authority to censor college run media. While arguing the Hosty vs Carter case, the court looked back on a similar case known as Hazelwood.

In the Hazelwood case the court decided that it was okay for a principle to censor a high school newspaper if it was considered, “poorly written,” “ungrammatical,” “biased” or “inconsistent with the shared values of a civilized social order”.

3. Decision

The students won the battle in district court and U.S. Seventh Circuit Court Appeals. They acknowledged that a high school principle and the president of a public University should not have the
same the censorship authority.

However after asking the Seventh Circuit to reconsider the decisions was reversed the ruling in the lower courts and said the ruling for Hazelwood was justifiable for college universities under the Seventh Circuit which included Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. For those three states censorship by the administration can be considered okay.

4. Analysis

The courts decided that the newspaper wasn’t considered a public forum but instead an extracurricular activity. Since it is not a public forum it was not protected by the First Amendment. Therefore in this case the courts decided in favor of Carter. However, this legal decision only impacts those who live in the Seventh district.

5. Questions

  • If the administration is unhappy with the articles published by a college student media do they have the right to cut
    funding?
  • What do you think would happen to the BGNews if they applied the Hosty ruling to the newspaper?
  • Should editors outside of the Seventh District warn/communicate to administration before reporting controversial articles?