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Know Your New Jersey New Voices Act

SPLC.org

@SPLC

@StudentPressLawCenter

Student Press Law Center

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Student Press Law Center

Provides free legal help and information on media law questions to student journalists and their advisers.

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splc.org/new-voices

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Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

The U.S. Supreme Court significantly reduces the level of First Amendment protection provided to most school-sponsored student media at public high schools.

School-sponsored student media can be censored as long as there is a “legitimate pedagogical concern.”

New Voices laws are necessary because of a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier, where the court said that student speech in school-sponsored media can be censored as long as there is a “legitimate pedagogical concern.” Here’s the problem: who knows what a “legitimate pedagogical concern” is? Nobody! Nobody can agree on what that means. And so for the next 35 years we have an explosion of subjective censorship largely dependent on who your school admin is.

We should note that courts have generally held that Hazelwood applies only to public K-12 schools. College student journalists have considerably more First Amendment rights, and generally cannot legally be censored by school officials. However, it still happens. So, several state New Voices laws apply to colleges.

Additionally, states generally don’t weigh in on what private school students can do. Private school students do not have the same First Amendment rights at school as public school students. Only California and Rhode Island have extended state law protections to private school students.

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NJ Stat. Sec. 18A: 36-45 &

18A: 62-67

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New Jersey New Voices Law

Censorship

Prior restraint

Undue delays

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New Jersey New Voices Law

Retaliation

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New Jersey New Voices Law

Unprotected speech

by student journalists

Substantial disruption to the educational ability of the school

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Your district needs a policy!

The law requires that every school district have a written student freedom of expression policy.

No policy can be more restrictive than the law.

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splc.org/know-your-rights-new-jersey

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A law is just the beginning

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Write the story. We’ve got your back.

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newvoices@splc.org

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SPLC.org/LegalHelp

SPLC.org

@SPLC

@StudentPressLawCenter

Student Press Law Center