A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last Thursday that First Amendment lawsuits filed by student journalists at public colleges and universities become moot when the plaintiffs are no longer enrolled in school.

The ruling came after an appeal by two former editors of the Kansas State Collegian, Sarah Rice and Katie Lane, who charged that their First Amendment rights were violated in 2004 when the university removed their adviser due to a lack of quality news coverage and coverage on minority issues.

The court decided that school administrators could not determine content or quality of the student newspaper, and that Rice and Lane could no longer have a First Amendment claim because they were no longer enrolled in the school.

"This is an important turn of events," said Kathy Lawrence, adviser advocate from College Media Advisers and director of student publications at UT. "It says if you are a student at UT and your rights are violated, the issue could not be addressed once you graduate."

Cases involving First Amendment rights usually take a long time, making it difficult for a student to proceed very far in the case before graduating from the college or university.

Although UT has never been involved in a First Amendment case with The Daily Texan and is not involved in the 10th U.S. Circuit with Kansas State University, Lawrence said that other circuits around the country may look at the case when they make decisions about other cases.

"This is a threat to press freedom and a real problem around the country," said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. "The good thing about the ruling is that it doesn't endorse schools' action. However, the damaging thing is that it prevents students from suing."

The center was among several journalism groups that supported the Kansas State student journalists.

In order to resolve the First Amendment issue, the Kansas State case must be appealed or the Kansas legislature must pass a law that will protect students, Lawrence said. She also noted that though not directly a First Amendment case, June marked the end of a 10-year challenge to prior review for The Daily Texan, which mandated a University official to review each issue before going to print. In 1973, when UT System Regent Frank Erwin enacted prior review, The Texan ran a front page without content, expert for an Erwin quote, in protest of the decision.

Rice said she will appeal the decision again.

"It's not about what happened at Kansas State anymore, but for the danger and rights of other college journalists and newspapers," she said. "They should not be able to run out the clock on us."

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