## Facts

- Barbara Susan Papish, a graduate journalism student at the University of Missouri, helped distribute an underground student newspaper on campus that had previously been sold with university authorization.
- She distributed an issue containing (1) a political cartoon depicting policemen raping the Statue of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice with the caption “With Liberty and Justice for All,” and (2) an article with an explicit profane headline reporting on a criminal acquittal.
- University officials charged Papish under a student conduct bylaw requiring students to observe “generally accepted standards of conduct” and prohibiting “indecent conduct or speech.”
- After university disciplinary proceedings, the Student Conduct Committee found a violation; the Chancellor and Board of Curators affirmed, and Papish was expelled mid-semester and denied course credit.
- There was no finding that distribution of the newspaper disrupted campus order or materially interfered with the rights of others.
- Papish sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for declaratory and injunctive relief; the federal district court denied relief, and the Eighth Circuit affirmed on the view that the university could enforce “conventions of decency” on campus even if the material would be protected off campus.

## Issues

1. Whether a state university may expel a student for distributing on campus a publication containing offensive language and imagery under an “indecent speech” rule when the material is not obscene or otherwise unprotected and there is no showing of disruption.
2. Whether “conventions of decency” can justify prohibiting the dissemination of protected ideas on a public university campus.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision, reversed the Eighth Circuit.
- The Court held the expulsion violated the First Amendment because “the mere dissemination of ideas on a state university campus cannot be proscribed in the name of ‘conventions of decency.’”
- The Court found it clear that neither the political cartoon nor the profane headline was obscene or otherwise outside First Amendment protection.
- The absence of any finding of disruption or interference with others’ rights confirmed the discipline was based on content and offensiveness alone.

## Legal Principles

- State colleges and universities are not enclaves immune from the First Amendment.
- Public universities may not punish or suppress protected expression solely because it is offensive to good taste or inconsistent with “conventions of decency.”
- Offensive language or imagery, without obscenity or another recognized category of unprotected speech and without material disruption, remains protected speech on a public university campus.

## Conclusion

A public university violates the First Amendment when it expels a student for distributing a campus publication that is offensive but not obscene and causes no disruption, because protected ideas cannot be barred on the ground that they offend “conventions of decency.”


Papish v. Bd. of Curators of Univ. of Mo., 410 U.S. 667 (1973)