A new Gallup survey found that most college students support an open learning environment at universities, but many still support policies that prohibit offensive language, slurs and costumes that stereotype racial and ethnic groups.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died this weekend, leaving a complicated legacy on his rulings regarding students' First Amendment rights.
A complaint filed in U.S. district court cites remarks by KU budget committee members tying the newspaper's 50 percent funding reduction to a sharply worded editorial calling for reforms in campus elections.
Federal rules require "research" involving "human subjects" to be approved by colleges' Institutional Review Boards. Overzealous colleges occasionally have insisted that student journalists submit their surveys or questionnaires for institutional pre-approval, violating basic principles of press freedom. The SPLC is urging the federal government to adopt a proposal categorically removing journalism from the purview of IRBs.
College journalism professor Steve Listopad is the 2015 winner of the Hefner Foundation's award for outstanding contributions to the First Amendment by an educator. Listopad worked with six of his students at the University of Jamestown on crafting what became North Dakota's John Wall New Voices Act, one of the strongest laws in the country protecting student journalists and advisers.
A former student who was expelled from a Georgia university for environmental activism without a hearing has received a $900,000 settlement after eight years.
A federal appeals court allowed student plaintiffs to go forward with due process and First Amendment challenges to the state of Arizona's decision to eliminate "ethnic studies" courses from the K-12 curriculum. The court's 3-0 decision is remarkable for recognizing that students have a constitutionally protected right to receive information even in the classroom setting, a principle that may strengthen the hand of future student plaintiffs.
Editors at a Pasadena-area high school say their principal ordered them to water down coverage of a popular teacher's removal, claiming it would invade the teacher's privacy. A local ACLU lawyer is asking the district to investigate whether the school censored not only the journalists, but also students who planned to protest the teacher's firing but were pressured to cancel the demonstration.
A federal court struck down as unconstitutional an Everett, Wash., school policy forbidding students from distributing literature they didn't create. The ruling was a partial victory for a high school senior who was disciplined for violating the ban by handing out religious literature promoting his faith.
A student was denied admission to a Maryland community college's program in part because of a remark he made about being religious. Now, a U.S. district judge says the student has no free-speech case, and that colleges have unlimited leeway to reject applicants for "personal" remarks they make during admissions interviews.