Students appeal UA magazine suspensions in First Amendment case

A group of plaintiffs challenging the University of Alabama’s suspension of two student publications filed an appeal Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, asking the court to overturn a lower federal court ruling that allowed the magazines to remain shuttered.

Founded in 2020, Nineteen Fifty-Six was a biannual student-run magazine “focused on Black culture, Black excellence, and Black student experiences at The University of Alabama.” The publication was named for the year Autherine Lucy Foster, the first Black student to attend UA, enrolled at the university.

Alice was a lifestyle, fashion and wellness magazine that produced content primarily targeted toward university women since its launch in 2015.

The university permanently suspended and revoked funding from Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice in December.

UA cited a nonbinding memo issued by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi outlining Justice Department “best practices” for universities in line with the department’s opposition to university diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The university argued that the two publications engaged in unlawful proxy discrimination through their content’s focus on particular demographic viewpoints.

The suit challenging the suspensions, Pointer v. Phelps, was filed in March by eight student plaintiffs who served or planned to serve as editors or contributing writers for the publications.

U.S. District Judge Edmund LaCour Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled in May that the suspensions were based on the demographic focus of the magazines rather than an intent to suppress specific viewpoints.

The court denied the plaintiffs’ request for oral arguments and a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the publications to reopen while the case proceeded. LaCour held that the university’s decision was “reasonable” and not a “pretext for silencing a particular viewpoint.”

In Wednesday’s brief, attorneys for the student plaintiffs—the Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the law firm Arnold & Porter—asked the 11th Circuit to review the district court’s decision.

The plaintiffs argued that the district court erred in holding that the publications constituted university speech rather than independent student speech.

The brief argues that the district court’s ruling and UA’s actions against the publications violate precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, in which the court ruled that a university cannot withhold funding from a student publication because of its content.

The plaintiffs also requested oral arguments in the appeal, citing the potential impact of the lower court ruling on universities’ authority to regulate private student speech.

“Oral argument is warranted because this appeal concerns important constitutional questions about the scope of the University of Alabama’s power, under the First Amendment, to regulate the private speech and expression of students who served or planned to serve as editors and contributors to two University-funded, student-operated publications affiliated with the Media Planning Board, a limited public forum created by the University,” the filing reads.

Alongside the brief, the LDF released a series of statements from student plaintiffs and their attorneys, who said the suspensions threatened students’ First Amendment rights and undermined the independence of student press outlets.

“Student-operated publications, like Alice, provide students with the invaluable opportunity to tell our own stories and share ideas and views with our campus community that might otherwise go unheard,” student plaintiff Emily Waugh said.

“That freedom is essential to a healthy campus community, and that is why we’re appealing to the Eleventh Circuit,” Waugh continued. “Students should be able to write, create, and express themselves without fear that their publications will be silenced simply because a university dislikes a publication’s focus on topics related to gender, sexuality, and race.”

“Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six were essential to the University of Alabama’s student media ecosystem. The magazines provided a space for students to find their voice, challenge ideas, and create a sense of belonging,” student plaintiff Jermaine Ball said.

“We are fighting not just for us, but for the students who will come after us—because student-operated publications give students the vital opportunity to shape the conversations happening around them while ensuring that a diversity of experiences and perspectives are represented,” Ball added. “Protecting student publications means protecting our constitutional right to be heard.”

Sam Boyd, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC, challenged the district court’s reasoning that the publications’ focus on particular demographics meant the students who worked on the magazines and their audiences did not reflect a diverse range of viewpoints.

“The suspension of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six singles out, for unjust censorship, the students who write for and read these magazines, which reflect a diverse range of people,” Boyd said.

“Closing these magazines because of their editorial perspectives related to race and gender perpetuates discrimination rather than fighting it, as the university claims,” Boyd added. “We urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to protect the First Amendment rights of the students and editors at these magazines and stand up for all students at the University of Alabama and beyond.”

Alison Mollman, legal director at the ACLU of Alabama, described the appeal as an effort to restore students’ First Amendment rights and said she hoped the 11th Circuit would reverse the district court’s ruling.

“When we filed this lawsuit earlier this year, we made a commitment to our clients and to all students at Alabama’s public universities and colleges to fight for their First Amendment rights,” Mollman said. “Our appeal is a critical next step to restore the publication of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six while this litigation proceeds, and we are hopeful that the Eleventh Circuit will reverse the district court’s erroneous decision.”

Avatara Smith-Carrington, assistant counsel at the LDF, argued that the case comes amid a broader trend of universities restricting student speech disfavored by administrators.

“Courts, including the Supreme Court, recognize that a public university’s influence is measured by its students’ creative power and intellectual quality,” Smith-Carrington said.

“That influence is marred by the University of Alabama’s suspension of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six, which violates the university’s constitutional obligation to protect students’ First Amendment rights,” they added. “The suspension also continues the recent, troubling trend of censoring student speech simply because university administrators disfavor discussions that focus on issues related to race, gender, and sexuality. We hope that the Eleventh Circuit will correct the lower court’s grave error and restore Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six to the University of Alabama’s campus community.”

In an interview Wednesday, Smith-Carrington told APR that student press freedom and students’ rights to speak freely on college campuses are “at the heart of” the case.

“The district court, you know, essentially incorrectly held that the speech at issue—so essentially what is the student speech and expression, which is through these two magazines, Alice and 1956—that that is not student speech, but instead the university’s speech,” Smith-Carrington said. “And I think that that's a really troubling kind of understanding of the issues in this case specifically, but what that might mean for student expression and speech across campuses.”

Smith-Carrington also challenged the university’s argument that the publications spoke to or employed only specific demographic groups based on race or gender.

“That's not true. That's something that has never been proven true or otherwise,” they said. “It's very much so the case that the magazines, as well as the content that was published online for some of the magazines, were available to all students—that all students across the University of Alabama engage with both Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six.”

Neither publication requested demographic information from prospective student contributors or staff members, nor did either magazine exclusively hire Black or female staff members, respectively.

Asked about the case’s importance to university students, Smith-Carrington said the issues could affect both student media and speech more broadly on college campuses.

“I think that this case is like incredibly important for students to pay attention to, especially students at the University of Alabama, because it implicates their ability to actually engage in speech and expression on the campus,” they said.

“There could come a day where the university decides that, ‘hey, something that was published in The Crimson White—we don't like it. And so, we're gonna actually ask, you know, the editors to remove that content,’” Smith-Carrington added. “And if this decision is allowed to stand from essentially the district court, they could do that. And I think that that is a really disconcerting, potential outcome of this because again, that means that student speech and expression on campus, specifically at the University of Alabama, is not protected.”

MASTHEAD, an organization of UA student journalist alumni, raised funds to help students publish the magazines off campus. Issues of the new magazines, Selene and Sixty-Three, were published in April.

Following the suspensions, UA Student Media announced a new publication replacing the two shuttered magazines. The new magazine, Druid, focuses on life in Tuscaloosa and beyond.

“This new magazine examines the art, culture, and social connections of the city that is home to The University of Alabama and the members of its community, state and region,” the university wrote.