Sources: Cheryl Strecker, 785-532-5730; and
Angela Powers, 785-532-3963, apowers@k-state.edu
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
K-STATE WINS APPEAL IN COLLEGIAN CASE
MANHATTAN -- With the decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the appeal of a First Amendment rights case against Kansas State University, officials at K-State say it is time to move on.
In a unanimous decision issued July 26, the Appeals Court threw out the appeal of an earlier decision by the U.S. District Court of Kansas dismissing the case against K-State brought by two former editors of the K-State Collegian, Katie Lane and Sarah Rice. Lane and Rice claimed their First Amendment rights were violated in 2004 when university administrators reassigned the duties of Ron Johnson, who was the Collegian's faculty adviser at the time.
The District Court dismissed the case in 2005, holding that even if everything alleged in the complaint were true, the First Amendment was not implicated by the personnel action taken toward Johnson based on his performance deficiencies, including his "attitudinal shortcomings."
The District Court held that the complaint and its exhibits, including a detailed performance review of Johnson, showed no indication of any censorship of the content of the Collegian, but rather established that Johnson's reassignment was due to reasons "wholly unrelated to the First Amendment."
Lane and Rice appealed the District Court's decision. But the Appeals Court found that because both students had since graduated from K-State, they did not have the representational capacity to bring the case. No current students were involved in the case, and Johnson, who was an original plaintiff in the case, dropped out when the District Court ruled he had no standing to sue because he did not exercise any speech rights while advising the Collegian editors and reporters.
"Because there is no live 'case or controversy,' the Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction to hear the appeal and accordingly dismissed it as moot," said Cheryl G. Strecker, K-State senior associate attorney.
"This was a performance-based personnel action, pure and simple," Strecker said. "There was never any attempt to censor or control the content of the Collegian. The decisions of two federal courts, in which no wrongdoing by K-State was found, should be enough to lay this matter to rest."
Steve White, dean of K-State's College of Arts and Sciences and one of the administrators involved in Johnson's reassignment, said K-State upholds free speech in all aspects and has never told students or advisers what to write in the Collegian.
"Our concern all along has been to provide the best environment possible for our students," White said.