Student Editor Sues on Political Endorsements

The editor of the San Diego State University campus newspaper filed suit Thursday to overturn a California State University policy prohibiting the system’s 20 newspaper editorial boards from endorsing political candidates and propositions.

Represented by the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, R. Andrew Rathbone also asked U.S. District Judge Edward Schwartz to prohibit SDSU President Thomas Day from suspending him as editor of the Daily Aztec for one day. Rathbone is scheduled to serve the suspension Feb. 2.

The Daily Sundial, the student newspaper at California State University, Northridge was among 11 schools that defied the CSU system prohibition against unsigned endorsements. In two editorials printed on Nov. 4, the Sundial endorsed Sen. Alan Cranston and Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, and gave opinions on four propositions.

A disclaimer was printed below the editorials stating that they were the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial staff, and not the university or the CSU system.

Rathbone’s attorney, John Allcock, said that the CSU policy is a clear violation of Rathbone’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression.

“Just because the state allows a newspaper to exist doesn’t mean the state can control what the newspaper says,” Allcock said at a news conference at ACLU offices.

“History has shown that students have to speak out politically or no one else is going to speak up for their rights,” Rathbone said.

Day said Thursday that the situation now “works out belatedly the way it should have gone in the first place,” with a court test of the issue.

Day said he sanctioned Rathbone for flouting the CSU rules--which carry the weight of state law--without first exhausting other remedies, such as taking the matter to court. He said he did not consider the suspension a comment on whether the policy is constitutional.

Day moved to suspend Rathbone on Nov. 4, when the Daily Aztec published unsigned endorsements of candidates on the general election ballot that day. A day earlier, the newspaper carried an editorial in the same space exhorting other campus newspapers to defy the endorsement ban. Rathbone appealed the suspension, and it was postponed until Feb. 2.

Day continued to maintain Thursday that it is inappropriate for the Daily Aztec to endorse candidates for offices outside the campus because campus newspapers are “primarily a medium of intra-campus communication among and between students.”

Mayer Chapman, the CSU general counsel, said in November that endorsements by student newspapers might leave unclear whether the endorsement is the opinion of the publication staff or of the university. It would also entangle an organization that receives money from the state in state elections, he said.

Though other CSU campus newspapers defied the ban, Day’s action against Rathbone was the only known punishment of a student editor during the November election period, said Jeff Stetson, a CSU spokesman.

A similar lawsuit was filed by Adam Truitt, student editor of the Humboldt State University Lumberjack, who was suspended for the same reason two years ago. An out-of-court settlement was reached in that case, but rejected by the CSU trustees in a closed session in November.

Braafladt said the settlement was similar to provisions in a bill passed this year by the Legislature, which would have allowed campus newspapers to publish endorsements as long as they carried disclaimers indicating that they were the opinions of the newspaper staff. Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed the legislation Sept. 30.