BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2581
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2581 (Yee)
As Amended March 27, 2006
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 4-1 JUDICIARY 9-0
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|Ayes:|Liu, Matthews, Nava, |Ayes:|Jones, Harman, Evans, |
| |Ruskin | |Houston, Laird, Leslie, |
| | | |Levine, Lieber, Montanez |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Leslie | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Prohibits University of California (UC), California
State University (CSU), or California Community College (CCC)
administrators from conduct already forbidden for governing
boards and clarifies that the student press is specifically
protected against prior restraint. Specifically, this bill
prohibits any administrator of a campus of UC, CSU, or CCC from
making or enforcing any rule subjecting a student to sanction
solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other
communication that, when engaged in outside a campus, is
protected from restriction by the California Constitution or the
United States (U.S.) Constitution, and specifies that prior
restraint of the student press is not authorized.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits the U.S. Congress from writing laws abridging the
freedom of speech or of the press.
2)Prohibits the California Legislature from writing laws that
restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press.
3)Prohibits the UC Regents, CSU Trustees, and governing board of
a community college district, from making or enforcing any
rule subjecting a student to disciplinary sanction solely on
the basis of speech that is protected by either the California
Constitution or the U.S. Constitution.
4)Provides that high school students have freedom of speech and
press, as long as such speech is not obscene, libelous,
AB 2581
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slanderous, or incites unlawful activity. Prohibits prior
restraint of student publications that do not violate this
provision.
5)Prohibits high school districts from making or enforcing any
rule subjecting any high school pupil to disciplinary
sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or
other communication that, when engaged in outside of the
campus, is protected from governmental restriction by the
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or Section 2 of
Article 1 of the California Constitution.
6)Prohibits community college officials from limiting student
speech as long as it is not obscene, libelous, slanderous, or
incites unlawful activity.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : This bill prohibits censorship of student newspapers
at a California college, university, or community college by
prohibiting UC, CSU, or CCC officials from exercising prior
restraint of student speech or the student press. According to
the author and sponsor, the California Newspaper Publishers
Association, existing law could be considered sufficient to
cover both administrators and the student press. However, a
recent court decision, and CSU memo, led them to introduce this
bill in order to protect the freedom of the university student
press in California.
According to the author, this bill is a response to the recent
Seventh Circuit Court decision in Hosty v. Carter (2005 412 F.3d
731. In this case, the Dean of an Illinois university halted
the printing of a student article that was critical of the
university's administration. This administrator later
instituted a requirement for prior administrative approval of
articles in the student newspaper. The lower court held that
the students' First Amendment rights were violated as a result
of this requirement. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court
subsequently reversed this decision. The Circuit Court, in its
reversal of the decision favoring the students, extended a
holding from a previous case which had found that high school
sponsored publications do not enjoy the same First Amendment
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protections as professional publications. Hosty extended the
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) 484 US 260
decision to university campuses, allowing prior restraint of
student newspaper articles by school officials.
In a memo, dated June 30, 2005, the CSU Office of General
Counsel cited the Hosty decision and explained to CSU
presidents, "CSU campuses may have more latitude than previously
believed to censor the content of subsidized student
newspapers." According to the author, this memo, along with the
Hosty decision, necessitates this bill.
When the Hazelwood decision found that high school publications
did not enjoy the same protections as professional publications,
the California Legislature enacted SB 1115 (Leonard), Chapter
1363, Statutes of 1992, to protect high school journalists from
prior restraint. According to the sponsor, college and
university newspapers were not included in the statute because
the Hazelwood decision was limited to high school students. It
was assumed that the First Amendment sufficiently protected
college and university publications. Without this bill, the
Hosty decision might lead to the absurd result of university
students having less First Amendment protections than high
school students.
Analysis Prepared by : Manuel Valencia / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0014339