Hosty v. Carter was a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:* Central District of Illinois* Northern District of Illinois...

 that limited the free press rights of college newspapers.
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Background of the case

In October 2000, the editor of Governors State University

Governors State University

Governors State University is a public university located in University Park, Illinois. The campus is located south of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1969, GSU is an upper-division university, offering undergraduate courses at the junior and senior levels as well as graduate level coursework at...

's student newspaper, The Innovator, was told by Dean Patricia Carter to hold future issues until they were approved of by a school administrator, because it had published stories and editorials critical of the administration. This was done despite a policy stating that student newspaper staff "[would] determine content and format of their respective publications without censorship or advance approval".

Journalists Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba filed suit against the University and Dean Carter in January 2001. A federal district court allowed the case to go forward in November 2001. The school appealed in early 2002.

The court's decision

The court of appeals held that college newspapers could be subject to the same amount of school control allowed under Hazelwood

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier

Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al., was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection...

for high school newspapers.