ISU Office of Student Publications

Freedom of the Press

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution reads:

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

For more than 30 years, student journalists at public universities such as ISU have enjoyed the same press freedom rights as are journalists operating in a commercial or “real-world” setting.

The courts have ruled that student leaders in editorial and advertising cannot constitutionally be subjected to censorship that includes prior review, theft of printed copies of a publication or by reduction of university or student government financial support as a way to attempt to control content.

In a 1972 case, the U.S. Supreme Court found: “...The precedents of this Court leave no room for the view that ... First Amendment protections should apply with less force on college campuses than in the community at large. Quite to the contrary, ‘the vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American scholars’.” (Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 180 [1972])

Links to Collegiate and professional media organizations: