WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court passed up a chance Tuesday to decide if college administrators can censor campus newspapers.
Justices declined without comment to review an appeal filed by former collegiate journalists at Governors State University, a public college in Illinois.
The students sued after a dean blocked the paper's printing in 2000 until she could review the news stories. Campus journalists had written unflattering stories in the Innovator about departments at the school in University Park, south of Chicago, which has about 6,000 students.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that that university faculty could regulate the paper's contents because it is published under the auspices of Governors State.
The case would have been a follow-up to a 1988 ruling that said public school officials could censor high school newspapers.
Backers of the student journalists in the latest case argue that college is very different.
''An uncensored college newspaper is vitally important to attracting college students to journalism and providing them with a real-world training ground that prepares them to become professional journalists,'' justices were told by lawyers for media programs at Northwestern University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Georgia, the University of Missouri, and Syracuse University.
The student journalists - Jeni Porche, Margaret Hosty and Steven Barba - had sued Patricia Carter, Governors State University's dean of student affairs. The appeals court overruled a district judge, in finding that Carter was shielded from the lawsuit.
''Word has already begun to spread that the standard 'hands-off student media' policies recognized by college officials in the past may no longer be required,'' attorney Richard Goehler told justices in a filing on behalf of many groups including the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Student Press Law Center and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The case is Hosty v. Carter, 05-377.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
