The University of Mississippi is withholding portions of now-departed head football coach Hugh Freeze's cellphone records on the grounds that the redacted calls are "personal." But there is no blanket exemption for "personal information" in the state's Public Records Act.
Kent State University's journalism school has released video highlights of a symposium that brought together press-freedom advocates from across the country to exchange strategies for effective legislative advocacy. Attendees got an intensive lobbying boot camp from Rebecca Snyder of the Maryland-D.C.-Delaware Press Association, who led the successful New Voices of Maryland movement leading to enactment… Continue reading Tips for effective advocacy, from Kent State’s Legislation Conference
Breaking with other courts that say the lost chance to play high-school sports can't be the basis of a First Amendment case, a Texas court allows a student ballplayer to proceed with his whistleblower retaliation claim.
Students have a constitutionally protected right to record the activities of school authorities on school grounds during school time, unless the school shows that recording will be substantially disruptive, a Maine judge decides in a case that could clarify the rights of student newsgatherers everywhere.
Email messages don't qualify as FERPA "education records" unless they're kept in a student's permanent file, a Pennsylvania judge rules, in a commonsense interpretation that may bolster journalists' access to documents routinely miscategorized as federally protected secrets.
Commentators say the nationally acclaimed reporting of high-school journalists aided by Kansas' Student Publications Act should convince legislators elsewhere to join the growing movement to protect the independence of school-produced journalism.
The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Freedom of speech, yet we are limited.… Continue reading A Texas student reflects on hitting the Hazelwood ceiling
First Amendment organizations are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a Minnesota community-college student kicked out of school over a dispute with a classmate on Facebook.
Some school boards have taken to disallowing public comment in response to bothersome meeting attendees. This practice brushes up against First Amendment rights and heightened protections for political speech.
Student press-rights legislation won unanimous approval in the Vermont Senate and in key committees in Indiana and Washington. Bills modeled on the New Voices of North Dakota Act are progressing in five states, and being prepared in several others.
