Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier

Petitioners

Hazelwood School District in St. Louis County, Missouri; various school officials; Robert Eugene Reynolds, principal of Hazelwood East High School; Howard Emerson, a teacher in the district

Respondents

Three former Hazelwood East students who were staff members of Spectrum, the school newspaper

Petitioners' Claim

That the Court should overturn a lower court decision holding that the students' First Amendment rights were violated when the principal removed two pages from their school newspaper before allowing it to go to press.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioners

Robert P. Baine, Jr.

Chief Lawyer for Respondents

Leslie D. Edwards

Justices for the Court

Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Byron R. White (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

13 January 1988

Decision

The students' rights were not violated by the removal of the two pages from their newspaper, because student newspapers published under the auspices of a journalism class are a part of the school curriculum, rather than a "public forum."

Related Cases

• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
• Grayed v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104 (1972).
• Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women's Voters, 468 U.S. 364 (1984).
• Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986).

Sources

Cornell. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/