''Kincaid v. Gibson'', 236 F. 3d 342 (6th Cir. 2001) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

court case before the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

dealing with

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

. Charles Kincaid and Carpi Coffer, students at Kentucky State University, filed the suit against Betty Gibson, KSU's Vice President for Student Affairs. In 1994, the Kentucky State University administration reviewed the school yearbook, ''The Thorobred'', and decided that its quality was not satisfactory. In particular, the administration felt as though the yearbook featured too many images related to current events and objected to the lack of school colors on the yearbook cover, among other things. Charles Kincaid and Carpi Coffer filed suit on behalf of the students against Gibson and the members of the university's Board of Regents. Initially, the lower courts granted the University's motion to dismiss—citing ''

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ''Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al.'', 484 U.S. 260 (1988), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forum ...

'' as an example of how students' speech in a school-sponsored setting can be censored by administrations. Eventually, the case made it to the Sixth Court of Appeals, who affirmed the District Court's dismissal. The students then appealed to have the circuit court rule ''

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

'', a motion which the Court of appeals granted. The en bank panel of the court heard the case on May 30, 2000 and decided in favor of the students with a 10-3 majority on January 5, 2001.
Kincaid v. Gibson
', 236 F.3d 342 (6th Cir. 2001). Kincaid v. Gibson was influential in deciding that Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which allowed school districts to censor material in a school publications, did not apply to colleges and universities. In early 2001, the parties reached a settlement, with KSU paying each student plaintiff $5,000 and attorney's fees of $60,000. As a part of the settlement, all students received the yearbook they had paid for in 1994.

External links

* http://www.belcherfoundation.org/kincaid_v_gibson.htm

References

United States Free Speech Clause case law United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit cases 2001 in United States case law Kentucky State University Yearbooks Student rights case law in the United States {{US-case-law-stub