Oregon Governor Signs Bill Protecting Student Press into Law

The Student Press Law Center reports that last Friday, the governor of Oregon signed into law a bill protecting the free speech rights of high school and college journalists. House Bill 3279 provides that:

Student journalists are responsible for determining the news, opinion, feature and advertising content of school-sponsored media.Any student enrolled in a public institution of higher education may commence a civil action to obtain damages under this subsection and appropriate injunctive or declaratory relief as determined by a court for a violation of subsection (2) of this section, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or section 8, Article I of the Oregon Constitution.

The bill contains a similar provision protecting the rights of Oregon’s high school students. Some other states (including Illinois, which passed the College Campus Press Act in the wake of the Seventh Circuit’s Hosty v. Carter decision) have passed or are considering similar bills.