The Region : Student Editors’ Endorsements Upheld

A federal judge ruled that student editors of the San Diego State University Daily Aztec have an unrestricted right to endorse political candidates and propositions. U.S. District Judge Edward Schwartz said the state university policy requiring that editorial endorsements be signed by their authors was an infringement of the editors’ First Amendment free speech rights. Editors at a dozen student newspapers in the state university system had flouted the policy, publishing unsigned endorsements before the November general election, but the only action taken was against R. Andrew Rathbone, editor of the Daily Aztec, who was suspended from his editorial post for one day. Schwartz ordered the suspension set aside and ruled that the university had no interest of its own which outweighed Rathbone’s First Amendment rights.