From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: right to have .plan
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:43:33 GMT

baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin) writes:

[...]
>Ironically enough, were the original poster at a public institution,
>his .plan file could be construed as a violation of the "separation"
>of church and state.  Absurd, yes, but the only interpretation
>consistent with Supreme Court policy on the subject.
[...]

I don't think this is true at state universities. Generally, students
and faculty at that level have freedom of expression when they are
speaking for themselves.

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

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

=================
caf-statement
=================
This is an attempt to codify the application of academic freedom to
academic computers. It reflects our seven months of on-line discussion
about computers and academic freedom.

Comments and suggestions are very welcome (especially when posted to
CAF-talk). All the documents referenced are available on-line.

=================
student.freedoms
=================
Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students -- This is the main
statement on student academic freedom.

=================
news/cafv01n33
=================
[No annotation available.]

=================
faq/netnews.reading
=================
q: Should my university remove Netnews newsgroups because some
people find them offensive? If it doesn't have the resources
to carry all newsgroups, how should newsgroups be selected?

=================
faq/media.control
=================
q: Since freedom of the press belongs to those who own presses, a
public university can do anything it wants with the media that it
owns, right?

=================
law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
=================
Excerpts from San Diego Committee v.  Governing Bd., 790 F.2d 1471
(1986).  A decision by an appellate court that applied the Supreme
Court's Public Forum Doctrine (to a school newspaper).

=================
law/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/student-publications.misc
=================
The book _Law of the Student Press_ by the Student Press Law Center
(1985,1988), says that four-letter words are protected speech, that
public universities are not likely to be liable for publications that
they for which they do not control the contents, and that the
_Hazelwood_ decision does not apply to universities.

=================
law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
=================
The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district
court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected
offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email.

It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a
remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with
the promise of the Bill of Rights.  The First Amendment is central to
our concept of freedom.  The God-given "unalienable rights" that the
infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be
preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed.

The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here
are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment.  But
freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only
restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the
fear of violent reaction.  Content-based prohibitions such as that in
the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the
screening which our Constitution demands."


=================
law/rust-v-sullivan
=================
The decision and decent for the so-called abortion information gag
rule case. The decision explicitly mentions universities as a place
where free expression is so important that gag rules would not be
allowed.

=================
law/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 what 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.]

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

To get these documents by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s):

  send acad-freeedom caf-statement
  send acad-freeedom student.freedoms
  send caf-news cafv01n33
  send caf-faq netnews.reading
  send caf-faq media.control
  send caf-law san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
  send caf-law stanley-v-magrath
  send caf-law student-publications.misc
  send caf-law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
  send caf-law rust-v-sullivan
  send caf-law perry-v-perry

The files are also available via anonymous ftp from ftp.eff.org
(191.88.144.3) as file(s):
  pub/academic/caf-statement
  pub/academic/student.freedoms
  pub/academic/news/cafv01n33
  pub/academic/faq/netnews.reading
  pub/academic/faq/media.control
  pub/academic/law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
  pub/academic/law/stanley-v-magrath
  pub/academic/law/student-publications.misc
  pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
  pub/academic/law/rust-v-sullivan
  pub/academic/law/perry-v-perry


-- 
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk