CA State Assembly Bill 2581 will protect college students against censorship.

California State Assembly -- February 24th, 2006. California State Assemblyman Leland Yee of the 12th district, has introduced A.B. No. 2581 (PDF Format). This bill was introduced because of a federal ruiling by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on case No. 01-4155, Hosty, Margaret v. Carter, Patricia.

In this case, a university newspaper named, "Innovator", from the Governers State Univeristy in Illinois ran into a problem. Dean Patricia Carter issued a policy in which the newspaper staff would need approval from a school official. This happened in October 2000, after the newspaper staff had published some unfavorable news about the administration. In January 2001, Margaret Hosty (editor and writer), Jeni Porche (editor and writer), and Steven P. Baron (writer), filed a complaint alleging Dean Patricia Carter, and other school officials violated their First Amendment rights by requiring that the newspaper be reviewed and approved prior to printing. My understanding is that the students won the case intially, after which the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a petition on behalf of Patricia Carter, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the university. This happened back on June 20, 2005. The information on the case is available in PDF format. Unfortunately, I could only get the "legal briefs" on the case. The case information that I have is as follows:

• Appellant Brief - Filed (05/03/2002)
• Amicus Brief - Filed (09/04/2002)
• Appellant Reply Brief - Filed (09/20/2002)
• The final decision is availabel online by clicking here.

The second legal brief listed above is named an "Amicus" brief. The term "amicus curiae" is defined as a friend-of-the-court. This can be a professional person(s) or an organization that is permitted by the court to give advice about the laws affecting the case in question. In this particular case, the brief lists 25 organizations as the above mentioned advisors. All of this means that Dean Carter was not held accountable for infriging on the civil rights of the students because of lack of knowledge of the decision in a different case. The underline message is censorship.

California State Assemblyman Leland Yee introduced the bill to prevent costly court battles such as this. In my opinion this bill will assist those in similar situations here and California, and with any luck, it will start the "snow ball" affect for other states in the United States to follow the example. Please show your support for this bill. Write your assembly member in California to show your support for this bill, that is the first step to changing the future. Those of you in other states need to start the movement with your state legislature.

UPDATED - The California State Senate has passed this bill and it is now in the hands of Governor Schwarzenegger. If the governer signs the bill, it will become law to protect student speech and press at the USC, CSU and community college level from being disciplined because of content. The governer actually does not need to sign the bill for it to become law. He or she can choose for the bill to become law without a signature as they see fit. In the event that the bill is approved by the governer, it may not be enforced until January 1st of next year. If you feel that the governer should approve this bill, then send him your opinion. Click here to see his contact web page.

Source: Hosty v. Carter Information Page (Student Press Law Center)
Source Date: February 21, 2006

Source: U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit

Source: Bill seeks to prohibit college censorship - (San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
Source Date: April 23, 2006

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