In the fall of 1994, administrators at Kentucky State University confiscated all copies of the student yearbook citing, among other things, displeasure with the yearbook cover's color, and transferred the student publication adviser to a secretarial position after she refused to censor material from the newspaper. Thus began one of the most important legal battles ever to confront America's college student media.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued its
decision January 5, 2001, in Kincaid v. Gibson,the Kentucky
State University censorship case.
By a 10-3 vote, the court reversed the lower court decision
that had upheld the confiscation of the student yearbook. Further,
the court's majority rejected the lower court's application of
Hazelwood to college student media.
From the opinion:
"...[T]he KSU officials' confiscation of the yearbook
violates the First Amendment, and the university has no constitutionally
valid reason to withhold distribution of the 1992-94 Thorobred
from KSU students from that era."
Citing a consistent body of case law that college student
media have relied upon for over three decades, the court's ruling
makes clear that the First Amendment remains a powerful protector
of student free expression on America's public college and university
campuses.
In late February 2001, Kentucky State University agreed to release the yearbooks it had held since their confiscation in 1994.
