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Kentucky State Settles With Students
Kentucky State University settled a lawsuit filed by two students over a 1994 incident in which university administrators prevented the distribution of a campus yearbook because they objected to its design and contents. A district court ruled in 1997 that the administrators’ actions were legal, and a three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in 1999. But in January, the full appellate court disagreed and ruled that the school violated the First Amendment.
The AAUP joined other organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief before both appellate courts, arguing that the administration’s actions violated the students’ First Amendment rights. (For more information on this case, Kincaid v. Gibson, see "Yearbook Seizure Violated First Amendment" in the March-April 2001 issue of Academe.)
According to the terms of the settlement, KSU will pay $5,000 to each of the two students, and about $60,000 to cover their legal costs. The university will also distribute the yearbooks to alumni who should have received them in 1994.
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