Do college administrators have authority to censor the content of student yearbooks and newspapers? Federal District Court Judge Joseph M. Hood said in 1998 they do, but in January of 2001 the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's ruling with a 10-3 decision and powerfully reaffirmed the constitutional protections of campus free speech.

The latest ruling follows a lower court decision in 1998 and a divided three-judge Court of Appeals decision in 1999, both of which held that Kentucky State University administrators did not violate the Constitution when they halted distribution of hundreds of KSU yearbooks over quality and content objections and demoted the student publications advisor after she allowed material critical of the school administration to be published in the campus newspaper.

Many journalism faculty and professionals argued that these rulings, based upon a Supreme Court decision permitting censorship of high school publications, don't apply to a university setting. "Student journalists at public colleges and universities are not minors and have enjoyed legal protections equal to those afforded the commercial media," states a resolution passed by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Supported by AEJMC, journalism schools and student advocacy organizations nationwide, the students appealed their case to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. After the three-judge panel initially ruled against the students, in a rare move, the Court of Appeals decided in November of 1999 to throw out their initial decision and rehear the case in front of the full panel of judges. Student journalists celebrated their victory this past January when the full appeals court reversed the lower court's decision and upheld 10-3 the historical and constitutional right of college students to enjoy free expression on campus. The opinion by the appeals court states that "...KSU officials' confiscation of the yearbook violates the First Amendment, and the university has no constitutionally valid reason to withhold distribution of the 1992-94 Thorobred from KSU students from that era."

KSU officials stood by their actions throughout the legal fight. "From our perspective, it was merely a matter of the quality of the work, not the content of the work," explains Bruce Edwards, Director of Public Relations for KSU. Campus administrators claimed that they confiscated the yearbook because of a lack in quality; specifically, the administration was unhappy over the inclusion of a current events section, an unclear dedication and the yearbook's failure to highlight the school colors of green and yellow.

However, the Court of Appeals rejected the University's argument that they were only confiscating the book over style and quality objections. Judge R. Guy Cole, in writing the majority opinion, called this argument "simply not credible," and called the confiscation of the yearbooks "among the purest forms of content alteration…We will not sanction a reading of the First Amendment that permits government officials to censor expression in a limited public forum in order to coerce speech that pleases the government."

The University did not appeal the case further, and agreed in March 2001 to pay $70,000 in damages and legal fees to the students, as well as release the hundreds of yearbooks that were confiscated in the early 1990s.

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