Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
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| Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier | ||||||
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 Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued October 13, 1987 Decided January 12, 1988 |
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| Full case name | Hazelwood School District, et al. v. Kuhlmeier, et al. | |||||
| Docket nos. | 86-836 | |||||
| Citations | 484 U.S. 260 (more) 108 S. Ct. 562; 98 L. Ed. 2d 592; 1988 U.S. LEXIS 310; 56 U.S.L.W. 4079; 14 Media L. Rep. 2081 |
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| Prior history | On writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit | |||||
| Argument | Oral argument | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| The Court held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection than independent student expression or newspapers established (by policy or practice) as forums for student expression. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | White, joined by Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia | |||||
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun | |||||
| Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | ||||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| U.S. Const. amend. I | ||||||
Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al., 484 U.S. 260 (1988) was a United States Supreme Court decision which held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection than independent student expression or newspapers established (by policy or practice) as forums for student expression. It was decided on January 13, 1988 in favor of Hazelwood School District, overruling a Court of Appeals reversal of a District Court ruling. Essentially, the court ruled in favor of the Hazelwood School District, the justices believing that the censorship did not violate the student's First Amendment rights of free speech.
Contents |
[edit] Case
The U.S. Supreme Court held for the first time that public school officials may impose some limits on what appears in school-sponsored student publications.
The high school paper was published as part of a journalism class. The principal at Hazelwood, Robert Reynolds, usually reviewed the school paper before it was published, given to by the advisor of the paper, Howard Emerson, and in this case he deleted two pages that had been written for the next edition of the school paper.
One of the deleted articles covered the issue of student/teen pregnancy and included interviews with three students who had become pregnant while attending school. (There was also an article about several students whose parents had been divorced, however the students' names were not disclosed in the article.) To keep the students' identity secret, the staff used pseudonyms instead of the students' names. The principal said he felt the anonymity of the students was not sufficiently protected and that the girls' discussion of their use or non-use of birth control was inappropriate for some of the younger students. An article about how a student's father was so bad in a divorce was one Reynolds didn't like because the father didn't get any kind of chance to defend himself or tell his side of the story.
[edit] Basis
The First Amendment's freedom of speech protections were not violated by the school district because the First Amendment protection for student expression described in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), does not compel a public school to affirmatively sponsor speech that conflicts with its "legitimate pedagogical goals." The school-financed newspaper at issue was also not considered to be a public forum under the totality of circumstances present in the case, and therefore, its editors were entitled to a lower level of First Amendment protection than is applicable to independent student newspapers or those newspapers that have, by policy and practice, opened their pages to student opinion."
[edit] Precedent
Under the First Amendment, school officials can censor non-forum student newspapers when they can justify their decision by stating an educational purpose. However, this decision does not allow school officials to censor articles wantonly or based on personal opinion, as shown in Dean v. Utica.
Some states have passed laws guaranteeing that non-forum newspapers, such as the Hazelwood East High School newspaper, are guaranteed the rights that the First Amendment describes.[1].
[edit] See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 484
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court
[edit] Research resources
[edit] Further reading
- Utterback, Andrew H. (2003). "Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier". in Parker, Richard A. (ed.). Free Speech on Trial: Communication Perspectives on Landmark Supreme Court Decisions. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. pp. 250–263. ISBN 081731301X.
[edit] External links
- Text of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988) is available from: · Enfacto · LII · UMKC School of Law
- Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier: A complete guide to the decision
- First Amendment Rights Diagram (shows whether Hazelwood or Tinker standard is applicable)
- State student free expression laws and regulations
- The Supreme Court on "Hazelwood": A Reversal on Regulation of Student Expression
- Much information on the case including the arguments
