MEDIA: media@splc.org
A Student Press Law Center-led coalition today warned the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that student press freedom is at stake in its review of the University of Alabama’s decision to close two student magazines.
The coalition, representing the nation’s student media community, filed an amicus brief in Pointer v. Phelps urging the 11th Circuit to reverse a lower court decision that treated the student magazines as the university’s speech rather than student speech. That decision, the brief notes, is contrary to six decades of case law securing the independence of student media at public colleges.
“What the 11th Circuit decides here will reach far beyond the University of Alabama, either securing or chilling student media at public colleges across the region,” said Gary Green, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. “Calling a student magazine ‘government speech’ because the university pays the printing bill or lends its name would hand administrators a veto over every story student journalists write. That is not a rule that independent student reporting can survive.”
The coalition includes SPLC, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. The brief was also endorsed by 40 student newsrooms and 15 student editors from large and small colleges across the country, including in Alabama.
The brief was prepared by attorneys at Alston & Bird LLP.
Student press freedom itself was born in Alabama, with the brief noting its origins in a 1967 case involving censorship at Troy State University (then Troy State College). The lower court’s decision in Pointer so severely departs from that precedent that it threatens to unravel press freedom for all student journalists at public colleges in the 11th Circuit states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
“If a public university’s funding, branding and infrastructure are enough to convert student journalism into government speech, then every student newspaper at every public college in America is government speech. Every editorial a student writes, every investigation a student reporter pursues, every quote a student reporter gets from someone to capture different perspectives, and every opinion a student columnist expresses would belong not to the student but to the state,” the brief argues. “That is not what the First Amendment means, and no court has ever held otherwise, until now.”
In December 2025, the University of Alabama suspended two student-run magazines, Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six, claiming the outlets were “unlawful proxies” for discrimination because they primarily focused on women and Black students. The term was included in a non-binding memo issued by then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Eight students sued the University of Alabama in March, arguing the closures were viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. In May, the district court denied their request for a preliminary injunction, holding in part that the magazines were government speech and therefore outside the First Amendment’s protection. The students appealed to the 11th Circuit in June.
The coalition’s amicus brief emphasizes the important role that independent student journalism plays today on college campuses and the surrounding communities and how that work will be chilled under the Pointer decision.
“The next student journalist who uncovers a university president’s research fraud, finds evidence of toxic mold in campus housing, or has sources claiming public funds have been misused, will have to ask before reporting whether her publication is next on the chopping block,” the brief argues. “That calculation, that fear, is the chilling effect the First Amendment exists to prevent.”
Learn more about the case on SPLC’s University of Alabama Censorship Tracker, and view SPLC’s analysis of the district court decision.
The Student Press Law Center is the nation’s only legal organization devoted exclusively to defending and advancing the free press rights of student journalists. Since 1974, we have helped students and their educators navigate the law, strengthen their reporting and stand up for press freedom. Our legal support, education and advocacy empower student journalists to report freely and courageously. Stay updated by subscribing at splc.org/newsletter.