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Johns Hopkins University: Viewpoint Discrimination Against Student Newspaper

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) dropped its investigation of a harassment complaint filed against staff members of a conservative student newspaper, The Carrollton Record. After several months of correspondence with JHU administrators, FIRE gained assurance that JHU is no longer pursuing the investigation. However, limitations on the distribution rights of campus publications remain and the university has not acted against cases of newspaper theft against The Carrollton Record. Johns Hopkins remains on FIRE's Red Alert list.

Case Materials

• "Johns Hopkins Drops Harassment Investigation of Student Journalists," September 21, 2006: The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has finally dropped its investigation of a harassment complaint filed against staff members of a conservative student newspaper, The Carrollton Record (TCR). After several months of correspondence with JHU administrators, FIRE has gained assurance that JHU is no longer pursuing the investigation, but FIRE’s other concerns—about JHU’s viewpoint discrimination, indifference towards newspaper theft, and limitations on distribution rights—remain.
• "The Johns Hopkins University Distribution and Posting Policies, sent to FIRE on September 12, 2006," September 12, 2006
• "Letter from The Johns Hopkins University Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs Dennis O'Shea to FIRE, September 12, 2006," September 12, 2006
• "FIRE Letter to The Johns Hopkins University President William Brody, September 5, 2006," September 5, 2006
• "Letter from The Johns Hopkins University Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs Dennis O'Shea to FIRE, August 15, 2006," August 15, 2006
• "FIRE Letter to The Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees, August 9, 2006," August 9, 2006
• "Letter from Maryland State Senator Alex X. Mooney to Johns Hopkins President William Brody, June 14, 2006," June 20, 2006
• "Student Newspaper Suffers Viewpoint Discrimination at Johns Hopkins University," June 13, 2006: Johns Hopkins University (JHU) ended this school year by engaging in shameful viewpoint discrimination and denying its students freedom of the press. First, JHU turned a blind eye to the theft of a conservative student newspaper, The Carrollton Record (TCR), and then it stifled the newspaper’s right to be distributed in dorms while allowing other pulications to continue being distributed there. TCR staff members contacted FIRE soon after these administrative abuses began.
• "Newspaper Distribution Rack in Wolman Hall," June 13, 2006: These photographs from May 20, 2006, show a newspaper distribution rack in Johns Hopkins University’s Wolman Hall, a dorm on campus, that displays copies of the Hopkins Donkey, a Democratic student publication, along with several advertisements from a pizza shop.
• "Cover of the May 2006 Issue of ‘The Carrollton Record’," June 13, 2006
• "Maryland Newspaper Theft Statute," June 12, 2006
• "Posting Policy from ‘Living at Hopkins Guidebook 2005–2006,’ p. 49," June 12, 2006
• "Letter from Johns Hopkins University General Counsel Frederick Savage to FIRE, May 26, 2006," May 26, 2006
• "FIRE Letter to Johns Hopkins University President William Brody, May 19, 2006," May 19, 2006

Blog Entries

• "This Month in FIRE History: Johns Hopkins Drops Harassment Investigation of Student Journalists," by Claire Jenkins, September 25, 2009

Media Coverage

• "Johns Hopkins initiates new distribution policy,"
  by Marnette Federis, Student Press Law Center News Flash, September 25, 2006
• "'Dirty, Gorgeous' Full-Throated Unfairness,"
  by John McCormack, National Review Online, August 10, 2006
• "FIRE Blasts Johns Hopkins for Letting Conservative Paper Be Censored,"
  by Jim Brown, Agape Press, June 19, 2006