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Hosty v. Carter could affect ISU student publicationsBy Katie Piepel A Governors State University administrator sued for censoring the school’s student newspaper has been given one more month to respond to a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The Supreme Court has allowed attorneys for Patricia Carter, former Governors State University dean, to push back the date of her response to Dec. 28. The original deadline was Nov. 28. The Supreme Court will likely make its decision to hear the case, Hosty v. Carter, in early 2006. Margaret Hosty and her journalism colleagues at Governors State’s student newspaper, The Innovator, sued Carter in 2001 for telling the paper’s printer in October 2000 to contact her office each time the paper was going to press so she could review and approve it. Carter was concerned because the paper had run stories critical of the university’s administration. On June 20, in the case of Hosty v. Carter, the 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals held in a 7-4 decision that college administrators are allowed prior review of school publications at public universities in the circuit. The 7th Circuit includes Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Governors State is located in University Park, Ill. In the U.S. press tradition, prior review has long been forbidden. However, a 1988 Supreme Court case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, allows censorship in certain cases at the high school level when no public forum exists or when the administration has a reasonable pedagogical reason for censoring. The circuit justices made reference to Hazelwood in their verdict last summer, and many legal experts see Hosty v. Carter as a test case that could bring Hazelwood to the collegiate press. “The problem with this is that it has the potential to create a national standard of censorship,” said Tom Barton, editor in chief of the Iowa State Daily. If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case and rules to give college administrators more control over student publications, this could affect student publications at Iowa State, resulting in the possibility of material being subjected to prior review by administrators and possibly censored. “If it goes through, then it applies to all of us and that’s creepy,” said Kate Fiegen, news editor for the Iowa State Daily. Since Carter asked to have prior review, The Innovator has not been published. Katie Piepel is a student in Dr. David Bulla’s Jl MC 202 class.
Last updated: Dec. 9, 2005 |
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