Papish v. Board of Curators of University of Missouri

331 F. Supp. 1321, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13397
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 7, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 1466
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 331 F. Supp. 1321 (Papish v. Board of Curators of University of Missouri) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Papish v. Board of Curators of University of Missouri, 331 F. Supp. 1321, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13397 (W.D. Mo. 1971).

Opinion

JUDGMENT DENYING PLAINTIFF DECLARATORY AND INJUNC-TIVE RELIEF; JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANTS

WILLIAM H. BECKER, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff, formerly a graduate student in journalism in the University of Missouri at Columbia, has brought this suit for declaratory and injunctive relief under Section 2201 of Title 28, United States Code, and Section 1983, Title 42, United States Code, as a result of her dismissal from the University of Missouri on a charge of participating in the distribution of indecent publications on and near the University campus. Plaintiff seeks a declaration of this Court that Article V of Sections A and B of the By-Laws of the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri, which relates to “indecent conduct or speech,” is invalid on its face and as applied in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Plaintiff further requests injunctive relief permanently to restrain defendants “from interfering with plaintiff’s right to remain at the University of Missouri-Columbia campus and to complete her education * * * and directing defendants to reinstate her as a graduate student”; permanently to restrain defendants “from interfering with plaintiff’s constitutional right to disseminate literature protected by the First Amendment”; and to direct defendants “to take any and all steps necessary to grant plaintiff her full credit for course work successfully completed in the Spring Term of 1969.” Plaintiff was enrolled as a non-resident graduate *1323 student in journalism when the acts occurred which led to her dismissal.

On September 22, 1969, a plenary evidentiary hearing de novo was held in this case on the motion for preliminary injunction in accordance with the uniform practice of this Court in student discipline cases. 1 By agreement, the *1324 ease on the merits was also submitted on this record. Full opportunity for argument and filing of briefs was afforded. On January 5, 1970, before the next semester began, the parties were advised that a decision had been reached to deny the relief sought and that the time for filing postjudgment motions or to appeal would not begin to run until the formal findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed. Because of the pending possible review of the case of Esteban v. Central Missouri State College (C.A.8) 415 F.2d 1077, 2 in the Supreme Court of the United States, and of Soglin v. Kauffman (W.D.Wis.) 295 F.Supp. 978, disapproved in part in the Esteban case, supra, 415 F.2d at page 1099 (later affirmed in (C.A.7) 418 F.2d 163) and because of other relevant cases pending in the Supreme Court of the United States, 3 the entry of final judgment in this case was stayed. Later, certiorari was denied in the Esteban case at 398 U.S. 965, 90 S.Ct. 2169, 26 L.Ed.2d 548. The Soglin case was not reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Plaintiff was dismissed from the University of Missouri at Columbia for her part in distributing, in and near the Me *1325 morial Tower, 4 on February 19, 1969, Volume IV, No. 3, the February 1969 edition of the Free Press Underground. Plaintiff’s accomplice Markham was distributing the publication on University property. Plaintiff was a 32 year old adult member of the staff of the Free Press Underground, a newspaper which had been published since 1965 by the Columbia Free Press Corporation, a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Missouri, which disseminated news and opinions on University, local and world affairs. The February 1969 edition of Free Press Underground contained two features which the University deemed “indecent” within the terms of its by-laws: (1) the front cover duplicating a political cartoon which appeared in the February 1969 edition of The Movement, a liberal paper of national circulation and depicting policemen raping the Statue of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice; and (2) an article reprinted from New Left Notes concerning the acquittal of a young. New Yorker after a trial for assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon headlined “Mother- Acquitted.” The word “Mother-” had no relation to the news story discernible by an ordinary person. The plaintiff knowingly and intentionally participated in distributing the publication to provoke a confrontation with the authorities by pandering the publication with crude, puerile, vulgar obscenities. She admits in her affidavit in support of her motion for preliminary injunction that the cartoon is obscene, stating in part: “It is not [vulgar]; it is obscene.” Earlier, on February 12, 1969, the Dean of Students had specifically directed that distribution of the same publication be discontinued because it violated University regulations against indecent literature. Plaintiff had been placed on disciplinary probation for distributing on University day an equally indecent issue of the same publication. She was also on academic probation for failure to submit portions of her thesis. This failure continued until the date of trial. As a result plaintiff is academically ineligible to continue as a student of the University.

On March 12, 1969, pursuant to Rule 5(c) of the University’s rules of procedure in student disciplinary matters, plaintiff received notice of charges against her pending before the Student Conduct Committee, based on the above cited Article V of Sections A and B of the By-Laws, of conducting herself “in a manner [not] compatible with the University’s functions and missions as an educational institution,” in the following particulars:

“That, while you were on a status of disciplinary probation, you did distribute, or aid and assist in the distribution of the Volume IV, No. 3, February 1969 edition of the Free Press Underground containing forms of indecent speech, on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, with knowledge that the Dean of Students had previously declared the forms of speech, therein appearing, indecent and distribution thereof improper on the University campus under existing rules and regulations.”

A hearing was subsequently conducted before the Student Conduct Committee which concluded in the Committee’s recommendation that plaintiff be dismissed from the University. The recommendation was adopted and affirmed by the Chancellor and the Board of Curators. In addition to being dismissed, plaintiff was denied credit for a course in ceramics which she successfully completed during the pendency of the intra-University appeals and disciplinary hearings. *1326 She was permitted to finish the semester for which she was enrolled. 5

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331 F. Supp. 1321, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/papish-v-board-of-curators-of-university-of-missouri-mowd-1971.