While the First Amendment openly grants freedom of speech and of the press, the integrity of college newspapers is being challenged in an ongoing federal court case.

Oral arguments in the Governors State University newspaper censorship case, Hosty v. Carter, were heard before a federal appeals court in Chicago on Jan. 7. The case arose in 2001 when editors of the Innovator, the GSU student newspaper, sued the dean of student affairs Patricia Carter for censoring their newspaper. Carter halted the press of the newspaper and ordered the printer not to print issues that were not approved by the school’s administration.

Lawyers representing GSU argued that college newspapers should be censored like high school newspapers, and in the latest twist, motioned that college newspapers be reviewed not for editorial content, but for grammar and spelling.

Attorney Richard Goehler of the Cincinnati firm Frost Brown Todd represented several interest groups that are against GSU, and as a friend of the court for the student editors.

While it may seem GSU’s latest argument is only a technicality to censor the content that students choose to publish in their newspaper, Goehler said he wasn’t surprised that they have shifted their argument.

“We always knew that was out there, but from our standpoint didn’t want to bring into the equation,” he said. “If you allow administration officials to have that pre-publication review authority, if they came across articles they didn’t agree with, they could attribute that it is incorrectly written. We anticipated that that could come up, it’s the kind of thing that you would cringe about when it does come up.”

Goeher said that even though this is the approach GSU is taking now, there’s no evidence in the record that was the concern of the administrators of GSU in the past.

“I think it’s an after-the-fact way to attempt to justify their actions, actions I believed that they should have known were unconstitutional,” he said.

Because it was GSU’s policy to entrust the student editors with the choice to print what they wanted, Goeher said their case is a violation on the university’s part.

“This was the policy at GSU, and that being the case, there is no justification for the action that was taken in the case,” Goeher said.

Goeher does feel that the students will prevail.

“At this point, it’s tough to crystal ball it,” Goeher said. “There is grave concern if these kind of unconstitutional practices are allowed to continue on college campuses, that students and faculty speech could be curtailed and that could be a bad thing.”

Whatever the ruling, Melanie Magara, assistant vice president for NIU Public Affairs, said that she feels strongly that it won’t have any effect on NIU’s campus media, especially the Northern Star.

“I would be really surprised in the end if the ruling that allowed this case to go forward stands,” said Magara. “I think that freedom of the college student press has a very large precedent, and I cannot recall seeing very many challenges to that over the years, and it shouldn’t stand.”

While a ruling against the students essentially would allow universities some form of censorship, Magara said that NIU’s position is in support of its campus media.

“NIU has a long and proud tradition of honoring freedom of the press, including and especially, the student press at the Northern Star,” she said. “The primary benefit of work at the Northern Star, for students who choose that route, is learning. One of the things that students learn at the Northern Star are the ins and outs of the First Amendment, freedom of the press and the responsibility that goes with it.”

A ruling on the case could come at any time, but isn’t expected for several months.

The Northern Star, like the GSU Innovator, is a student newspaper with all editorial content decided by its student journalists.