Campus Bulletin Boards Are Free Speech

The First Amendment prohibits selective removal of announcements from a state

college's campus bulletin boards, a federal appeals court has ruled.

In the case of Giebel v. Sylvester (Apr. 12, 2001), the United States

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that a professor, Sylvester,

who had allegedly removed notices of the upcoming speech of another professor,

Giebel, may have violated Giebel's First Amendment rights. In an ironic twist,

Giebel had been scheduled to speak at a conference on intellectual freedom.

Professor Giebel's First Amendment claim apparently grew from a prior dispute

between the professors. In 1995, Giebel was denied a tenure-track position at

Montana State University-Northern. In an unsuccessful lawsuit, he accused

Sylvester, his former department head, of blocking his bid for the job. When

Giebel was invited back to campus in 1996 to give a speech at a conference about

intellectual freedom, he posted handbills announcing his speech around the

campus. Giebel claims that former colleagues told him that Sylvester admitted at

a department meeting that he had torn the notices down. Giebel then brought

another lawsuit alleging that Sylvester had violated his First Amendment rights.

The trial court refused to dismiss the claims against Sylvester without a

trial. Sylvester had argued that, even if he did tear down the handbills, his

conduct did not violate the First Amendment because the handbills were not

protected speech and because the university had provided another forum - the

conference - for Giebel to present his ideas. The trial court rejected both

arguments, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed the trial court's...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT