CSU, Northridge Newspaper Silenced

WASHINGTON, MAY 11, 1989

CONSERVATIVE FORMER STUDENT JOURNALIST TO SETTLE SUIT OVER CENSORSHIP OF COLLEGE PAPER

James Taranto, a conservative former college journalist who now works for the Heritage Foundation, plans to settle a year-old First Amendment lawsuit against California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and Cynthia Rawitch, faculty advisor of the CSUN student newspaper.

Taranto will disclose the terms of the settlement at a news conference May 16 at the Washington Office of the American Civil Liberties Union. Also at the news conference will be Morton Halperin, director of the ACLU's Washington National Office, and former attorney general Edwin Meese, now a distinguished fellow at Heritage.

Taranto was news editor of the "Daily Sundial," the student newspaper at CSUN, in March 1987. He wrote an opinion article criticizing officials at UCLA who suspended a student editor for printing a cartoon making fun of affirmative action. Taranto argued that censorship is contrary to the mission of a university. "A university exists to promote the search for truth, and censorship is always detrimental to that search," he wrote.

Rawitch, an assistant professor of journalism, said Taranto had violated a rule barring the publication of "controversial" material without her permission, and suspended Taranto from his editorial position for two weeks without pay. Taranto contended he had been punished for his conservative views. After university officials rejected his appeal, Taranto, represented by the ACLU's Southern California chapter and the prestigious Los Angeles law firm of Hufstedler, Miller, Kaus and Beardsley, filed suit, claiming the suspension violated his constitutional right to free expression.

Taranto said his suspension was part of "a disturbing nationwide trend. Campus leftists -- including faculty members and administrators -- are attempting to silence conservative students through censorship and intimidation, often including false and malicious accusations of racism." In addition to his case and the case at UCLA, he cited recent incidents at Dartmouth College, Vassar College, the University of Virginia, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Halperin said,"The ACLU deplores efforts on university campuses to censor or punish speech. We believe that university administrators can and should respond to what they believe to be discrimination or prejudice without violating students' rights of free speech."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

JAMES TARANTO -- 202-546-4400 (O)
202-659-3252 (H)
MORTON HALPERIN -- 202-544-1681

FOR LEGAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CASE, CONTACT:

MICHAEL HUNTER SCHWARTZ -- 213-617-7070
Hufstedler, Miller, Kaus & Beardsley