The judges were urged to uphold a Fifth Circuit panel's December 2014 ruling in favor of Taylor Bell, an aspiring rap artist suspended from school in 2011 for a profane YouTube video about misconduct by two coaches at his school.
Author: Frank LoMonte
Montana Supreme Court boots open-records appeal in Krakauer case on legal technicality
The state's appeal of an order granting author Jon Krakauer access to public records about a campus sexual assault case was filed prematurely, the Montana Supreme Court decides. The order means it will be many months before a ruling that clarifies whether FERPA, the federal student privacy law, forbids colleges from disclosing records about disciplinary appeals in rape cases.
Accessing personnel records: A balancing act between privacy, public’s right to know
This article looks at the frustrating obstacles journalists often face in trying to obtain access to personnel-related records from college and schools. While the law sometimes entitles these agencies to withhold highly embarrassing or confidential documents, it’s an oversimplification to say – as many agencies do – that “personnel” is a blanket excuse for denying a public-records request.
Three-second glimpse of porn brings six-figure FCC fine for Virginia television station
After years of inaction on indecency complaints, the FCC lowered the boom on a Virginia TV station that unwittingly included a screen-capture of a sex act in a newscast video. The $325,000 fine is the maximum allowed by law and one of the few imposed since the FCC lost a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case questioning the constitutionality of federal indecency enforcement standards.
Protect students' right to display the American flag despite "hecklers," free-speech icons urge Supreme Court
The plaintiffs in the landmark Tinker student-speech case are asking the Supreme Court to accept, and reverse, a California case finding no First Amendment violation in a school's decision to ban American flag logo apparel that the school claimed might worsen ethnic tensions.
LSU wins partial court victory in closed-door presidential search
A state appeals court threw out contempt sanctions against Louisiana State University trustees and reversed a lower-court's ruling that required disclosure of dozens of people considered for the college's vacant presidency. Instead, the college will have to reveal only the names of four finalists who received interviews.
Searching professor's house for guns based on Facebook joke was unreasonable, appeals court rules
Evidence seized in an unlawful newsroom search led police to discover pot in a professor's home. But the illegally obtained evidence can't be used at the professor's drug trial.
SPLC urges Education Secretary to side with transparency, not concealment, in Montana sexual assault investigation
Education Department served notice it will side with University of Montana in arguing that FERPA privacy bars disclosure of public records in the disciplinary appeal of Montana's starting quarterback
Private college sent you to the dungeon? The Constitution won't help. Contract law might.
A federal judge says Colgate University can be liable for falsely imprisoning a student awaiting a disciplinary hearing but can't be sued for violating his constitutional rights, because private businesses aren't subject to the Constitution.
Connecticut joins consensus that school security videos are not confidential FERPA records
Connecticut has joined at least two other states in ruling that school surveillance videos can be released as public records without violating the federal FERPA privacy statute. The ruling is a win for common sense and a setback for the U.S. Department of Education's FERPA literalism.