2008 Woodie Awards
Galizio working on college newspaper free speech bill
Journalism instructor and state rep. concerned with freedom-of-speech rights for students
By: Deeda Schroeder
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News
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The bill would more fully extend First Amendment freedom of speech protection in Oregon to high school and college students. However, both the legislator and one of Oregon's leading First Amendment lawyers say that the bill may not be needed.
The bill by Rep. Larry Galizio, D-Tigard, closely resembles a bill that recently passed through a preliminary stage in Washington state's Legislature. Galizio is working to present the document to Oregon's Legislature by the Feb. 26 cut-off.
"As an educator," said Galizio, who teaches journalism at Portland Community College, "I'm concerned with the well-being of Oregon students and the state of our public schools."
In Oregon, the state constitution offers greater First Amendment protection than the federal Constitution. Galizio said that some people might think his bill is unnecessary, but is worthy of discussion.
Charles Hinkle, a Portland attorney specializing in First Amendment and publications issues, said that while the statute is a good idea, there has been no need of such a law in Oregon for years.
"There's been no evidence that the system is broken-so why fix it?" Hinkle said. "The only problems we know of have been in high schools, and that was over 10 years ago."
Students' First Amendment rights have been at risk since a June 2005 decision in the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Hosty v. Carter, allowed college administrators in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin some abilities to censor student publications. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in February 2006 to review the ruling.
The Seventh Circuit Court ruling extended to college administrators the censorship powers the Supreme Court had earlier given only to high school administrators in a 1989 case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
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