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University Censorship & Email
This has to do with university censorship of student e-mail. It's from
Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers. -- Joey Senat
Date Posted: 17 February 1997
>
>
> * * * * * * * * *
>
> FREE SPEECH 26 of 27
> A FEW EXAMPLES -- PROBLEM 1
>
> PROBLEM. A university punishes a student because he sent a
> misogynistic e-mail to some people who were
> offended by it. Violation of the U.S.
> Constitution?
>
> (page down for the answer)
>
> SOLUTION. There were two traps in this question. First, is
> the university private or public? If it's private, then no
> constitutional violation. Yes, we know, most private
> universities get lots of government subsidies of various
> kinds, but that doesn't matter. So long as the university is
> not run by the government, it's not covered by the First and
> Fourteenth Amendments.
>
> Second, and more subtly, did the student use a university
> e-mail account? If it wasn't, the answer is easy: The
> government is acting as university educator, and can't punish
> speech based on its content. UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
>
> If the account was a university account, then we have a
> slightly knottier question. The university is acting as
> proprietor; it's providing the computer from which the
> student sent the message, and it might argue that it at least
> has the right to kick the student off the computer.
>
> But at most universities, the e-mail systems are designated
> public fora -- the university opens the systems up to
> students to say whatever they want to say. The university
> can't then impose content-based restrictions (and certainly
> not viewpoint-based restrictions) on what students say there.
> So, again, UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
>
> The university might, however, open the e-mail system up to
> students but only for curriculum-related matters. If the
> misogynistic message is not curriculum-related, the
> university might kick the user off for that. On the other
> hand, if it only punishes students who send misogynistic
> messages and not other non-curriculum-related messages (e.g.,
> jokes, party invitations, and so on), then it becomes clear
> that it's discriminating not based on the ostensible purpose
> of the form -- curriculum support -- but based on the speech
> being misogynistic. Again, UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
>
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> authors:
>
> Larry Lessig David Post Eugene Volokh
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
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*************************************************************
* Joey Senat *
* Doctoral Student *
* School of Journalism & Mass Communication *
* University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill *
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* E-Mail: jsenat@email.unc.edu *
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