From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: right to have .plan
Originator: kadie@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 15:59:23 GMT

moon@Virginia.EDU (M. Yi) writes:

>recently i recieve a complaint about my .plan file
>which contains quote from the book of isaiah.  one
>user in my system accuses, "[i was] protelyzing over
>system."  i consider this as a challege in my freedom
>of expressing my thought and freedom of religion.

>is it freedom of speech valid in cyberworld?
[...]

At a state university such as U. of Virginia, freedom of expression is
protected even on/within University resources. People who don't care
for your .plan can easily ignore or avoid it, just as they can easily
ignore or avoid a "Quad Preacher" for whom the do no care.

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)

=================
caf
=================
* About the CAF mailing lists (and newsgroups)

A description to the comp-academic-freedom-talk mailing list. It is a
free-forum for the discussion of questions such as: How should general
principles of academic freedom (such as freedom of expression, freedom
to read, due process, and privacy) be applied to university computers
and networks? How are these principles actually being applied? How can
the principles of academic freedom as applied to computers and
networks be defended?

=================
law/constraints.constitutional
=================
* Constitution -- Public University -- Constraints

Comments from _A Practical Guide to Legal Issues Affecting College
Teachers_ by Partrica A. Hollander, D. Parker Young, and Donald D.
Gehring.  (College Administration Publication, 1985).  Discusses the
constitutional constraints on public universities including the
requires for freedom of expression, freedom against unreasonable
searches and seizures, due process, specific rules.

=================
law/clergy-v-chicago-board-of-ed
=================
* Expression -- On Campus -- Clergy v. Chicago Board of Ed

Excerpt from the ACLU Handbook _The Rights of Students_ 3rd Edition,
1988 about access to school facilities by students and outsiders. It
says if use by students is not disruptive, use should be allowed.
Also, "if any facility is made available to one group, the school may
not then deny other groups the opportunity to use that facility."

=================
law/tinker_v_des_moines.2
=================
* Expression -- On Campus -- Tinker v. Des Moines -- 2

A few excerpts from the majority decision in _Tinker v. Des Moines
Independent Community School District_ (1969). It concerned
non-disruptive political expression in schools. The Supreme Court held
that two students had the right to wear black armbands to school as a
protest against the Vietnam War.

=================
law/widmar-v-vincent
=================
* Expression -- On Campus -- Widmar v. Vincent

An excerpt from _The Rights of Religious Persons in Public Education_ by
John W. Whitehead summarizing how the Supreme Court case of Widmar v. Vincent
established that public university campuses are limited public forums.


=================
law/perry-v-perry
=================
* Expression -- Public Forum -- Campus Mail -- Perry v. Perry

Comments from the ACLU Handbook _The Rights of _Teachers_. It says
that campus mail systems (and other school facilities) can be limited
public forums. (Perry v. Perry was about an interschool mail system.
It was one of the cases that defined the Public Forum Doctrine.)

Also, a paraphrase from an ACLU handbook _The Rights of Teachers_. It
says that generally, speech, if otherwise shielded from punishment by
the First Amendment, does not lose that protection because its tone is
sharp.

Also, from p. 92, it says that there are legal limits to the oaths a
(public) school can ask its teachers to sign. [Some of these same
limits might apply to what a school can ask a user to sign as a
condition of getting (or keeping) a computer account.]

=================
law/stanley-v-magrath
=================
* Expression -- Public Forum -- Closing -- Stanley v. Magrath

Comments from _Public Schools Law: Teachers' and Students' Rights_ 2nd
Ed. by Martha M. McCarthy and Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe, published in
1987 by Allyn and Bacon, Inc. It says, in part, "[a]lthough school
boards are not obligated to support student papers, if a given
publication was originally created as a free speech forum, removal of
financial or other school board support can be construed as an
unlawful effort to stifle free expression." Also, "school
authorities cannot withdraw support from a student publication simply
because of displeasure with the content" and "the content of a
school-sponsored paper that is established as a medium for student
expression cannot be regulated more closely than a nonsponsored
paper". Also, it tells what to do about libel in student
publications.

=================
law/wiesenthal-center-v-mccalden
=================
* Expression -- Public Forum -- Closing -- Wiesenthal Center v. McCalden

UPI article about Supeme Court case 91-1643, _The Simon Wiesenthal
Center for Holocaust Studies, et al., vs.  Viviana McCalden, as
administrator of the estate of David McCalden_.

"The Supreme Court Monday let stand a decision that the city of Los
Angeles and a number of private organizations can be sued for
allegedly conspiring to ensure the cancellation of a scheduled speech
by a ``Holocaust revisionist.''"

=================
law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
=================
* Expression -- Public Forum -- Overview -- San Diego Committee v. Gov Bd

Excerpts from San Diego Committee v.  Governing Bd., 790 F.2d 1471.  A
decision by an appellate court that applied the Supreme Court's Public
Forum Doctrine (to a school newspaper).

=================
=================

If you have gopher, you can browse the CAF archive with the command
   gopher gopher.eff.org

These document(s) are also available by anonymous ftp (the preferred
method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp
to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):

  pub/academic/caf
  pub/academic/law/constraints.constitutional
  pub/academic/law/clergy-v-chicago-board-of-ed
  pub/academic/law/tinker_v_des_moines.2
  pub/academic/law/widmar-v-vincent
  pub/academic/law/perry-v-perry
  pub/academic/law/stanley-v-magrath
  pub/academic/law/wiesenthal-center-v-mccalden
  pub/academic/law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd

To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):

send acad-freedom caf
send acad-freedom/law constraints.constitutional
send acad-freedom/law clergy-v-chicago-board-of-ed
send acad-freedom/law tinker_v_des_moines.2
send acad-freedom/law widmar-v-vincent
send acad-freedom/law perry-v-perry
send acad-freedom/law stanley-v-magrath
send acad-freedom/law wiesenthal-center-v-mccalden
send acad-freedom/law san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
-- 
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property