Brien Desilets began attending Clearview Junior High School in September 1987 as a seventh grader. In November of that year, he became involved in the school newspaper, known as the Pioneer Press. The newspaper was an extracurricular activity.....

Brien submitted movie reviews on two R-rated films (Mississippi Burning and Rain Man) for publication in the [School's official student] newspaper. The school principal prevented the reviews from being published because the movies were R-rated.

The Reviews:

"Mississippi Burning Rated: R (Starring William [sic] DaFoe and Gene Hackman)

Mississippi Burning is about the murder of three civil right activists in

Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964. Two F.B.I. agents, Hackman and DaFoe, are sent to Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of three men. When they arrive, they find themselves unwanted by the people and the local police. None of the blacks will talk to the men, because they were harassed by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) for doing so. In the end the bodies are found, the police and Klan members are jailed and the F.B.I. leaves. The movie is worth the price of your ticket, but if you're looking for facts they're not here.

Rain Man Rated: R (Starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman)

In this film, Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) finds that he has a brother, Raymond(Dustin Hoffman) that [sic] has inherited three million dollars in their father's will. However, Raymond is autistic and does not understood the concept of money. Charlie then kidnaps "Rain Man" from a mental institution, and the two leave for a week long drive across the country. On this ride the two become great friends and experience many adventures. Dustin Hoffman did an excellent job of playing an autistic savant. The movie is hilariously funny and I think that everyone should see it."

Brien filed suit claiming a violation of the First Amendment and the N.J. State Constitution's free press clause. The trial held that the action violated the state constitution but not the federal constitution. The Appellate Division held that the censorship violated Brien's First Amendment rights under the federal constitution....The State Supreme Court affirmed.

HELD:

1. Whether a school newspaper is a "public forum" can determine whether attempts to limit or control the views expressed in the newspaper violate constitutional rights. The Appellate Division correctly concluded that the Pioneer Press was not a public forum within the definition of the United States Supreme Court. (pp. 3-6)

2. Speech in a non-public forum may be subject to reasonable restrictions. The United States Supreme Court has said that school officials may exercise editorial control over the style and content of student speech so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns. The Court believes that it does not need to reach the question of whether there is a significant distinction between "subject-matter" and "content or style" in determining the scope and application of educational policy because the Board and the school officials failed to prove that a legitimate policy had been established.

3. The difficulty in resolving the basic question of whether there was an established and legitimate educational policy in place points up the need to use administrative expertise - in this case, the Commissioner of Education - in the initial stage of the review process. (pp. 11-15)

The Court's decision pivots on the lack of a clear educational goal served by the censoring of the movie reviews:

"[T]he R-rated movie reviews in this case do not appear to raise educational concerns that call for the kinds of editorial control exemplified by the Supreme Court in Hazelwood....

The significant distinction between Hazelwood and this case is that the material in Hazelwood was censored because of its content and journalistic style. In the instant matter, it is conceded that the censorship had nothing to do with the style of the review, but only its subject matter. (This is an important distinction; content is what is written; subject is what is written about.). . .

The decision to censor was based solely on the fact that the subject matter of the review was R-rated. The point of the censorship was not to address stylistic deficiencies or the words chosen by the writer to convey his information; it was to suppress the idea itself...

In sum, we agree with the Appellate Division that under Hazelwood, defendants failed to establish a legitimate educational policy that would govern the publication of the challenged materials and, as a consequence, the school authorities, under these circumstances, did violate the student's expressional rights under the First Amendment.