Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
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Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al., 484 U.S. 260 (1988) was a United States Supreme Court decision that held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection than independent student expression or newspapers established (by policy or practice) as forums for student expression. It was decided on January 13, 1988 in favor of Hazelwood School District, overruling a Court of Appeals reversal of a District Court ruling.
Decision: for Hazelwood School District.
Basis: The First Amendment Freedom of Speech clause was not violated by the school district because the First Amendment protection for student expression described in Tinker v. Des Moines Community Independent School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) does not compel a public school to affirmatively sponsor speech that conflicts with its educational goals. The school-funded newspaper at issue was also not considered to be a public forum under the totality of circumstances present in the case, and therefore, its editors were entitled to a lower level of First Amendment protection than is applicable to independent student newspapers or those newspapers that have, by policy or practice, opened their pages to student opinion.
Precedent: Under the First Amendment, school officials can censor curricular, non-forum student newspapers when they can justify their decision with a legitimate pedagogical (i.e., educational) justification. Subsequent decisions, such as the decision in Dean v. Utica Community Schools, 345 F.Supp.2d 799 (E.D. Mich. 2004), have made clear that this is not carte blanche for school officials to censor articles wantonly or based on personal opinion.
Note also that some states have passed laws guaranteeing that curricular, non-forum newspapers (those at issue in Hazelwood) have greater rights than the First Amendment requires.
External Links:
- Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/firstamendment/hazelwood.html)
- Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier: A complete guide to the decision (http://splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=4)
- First Amendment Rights Diagram (shows whether Hazelwood or Tinker standard is applicable) (http://splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=38)
- State student free expression laws and regulations (http://splc.org/stateantihazlaws.asp)