Major court battle looming over college newspaper

CHICAGO -- Concerned about stories appearing in the campus newspaper, a dean at Governors State University telephoned the printer one night with some instructions.\nPatricia Carter, dean of student affairs at the school 30 miles south of Chicago, ordered him not to print any copies of the newspaper until she or one of the faculty members had reviewed the stories.\nNearly two years later, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering a challenge to that move in a case that could test freedom of the press on campus.\nNews industry groups such as The Associated Press Managing Editors Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors say there is a danger the case could extend to college newspapers a 14-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that gives high school principals power to control student publications.\n"If the court adopts the argument the university is making, that very well could be an effective conclusion to meaningful First Amendment protection of college student journalists," said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.