(U-WIRE) STANFORD, Calif. – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off Monday on Assembly Bill 2581, guaranteeing student press freedom at public colleges and universities. The new bill guards against censorship but still leaves student reporters and editors liable for damaging material considered slanderous or libelous.

As The Stanford Weekly reported Aug. 24, the Hosty bill was in response to the 2005 Hosty vs. Carter decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court held that censorship rights of high-school officials could apply to public colleges in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

After the Supreme Court declined to hear a Hosty case appeal, the California Assembly responded in May by unanimously passing the free student press legislation, approved by the State Senate on a 31-2 vote on Aug. 10.

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