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A. Yearbook
In 1995, two students at Kentucky State University, Charles Kincaid and Capri Coffer, sued the university for refusing to distribute the 1993–94 yearbook, The Thorobred. A vice president, Betty Gibson, had decided that the yearbook contents were unsuitable, that as a university publication it did not properly portray KSU. The students contended that their First Amendment rights had been violated and that the university had broken its contract with students since their $80 activity fee covered the yearbook. In 1997, a federal district court ruled in favor of the university administration. Under the Hazelwood decision, the judge found, yearbooks cannot be considered public or limited public forums, which do have First Amendment protection. The case is Kincaid v. Gibson. The students appealed. One of their contentions was that Hazelwood applied only to high schools. The university replied that the yearbook "is not a forum held open to the public—or even the student body—for 'communicating thoughts' or 'discussing public questions.'" A panel of three appellate judges in the Sixth Circuit heard the appeal in 1999, and the full court reached a decision in 2001. Pick up the case at the appellate level by examining these decisions and write a 300- to 450-word story as though the final decision were reached today.
191 F3d 719 (1999) 197 F3d 828 (1999) 236 F3d 342 (2001)
B. Censored Papers
The Student Press Law Center—www.splc.org—keeps up-to-date records of attempts to censor student papers and to intimidate their advisers. Take a recent case and write a story of 350 words about it.
C. Libel Cases
Despite the Supreme Court ruling in the Sullivan case, libel cases pop up frequently. Search the Internet for a libel case and write a story about it.
