"Many college newspapers may soon have to run their articles by the dean’s office—but, thanks to its independent status, The Cavalier Daily will not be one of them. The Supreme Court recently declined to rule on Hosty v. Carter, allowing to stand the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion that, like high school newspapers, subsidized college newspapers are subject to editorial control by the administration.

But President John Casteen will not get a chance to vet his morning copy of The Cav Daily, because the paper is not subsidized by the University. This autonomy grew out of a 1979 conflict between the administration and the paper, according to current editor Make Slaven. “Our independence is critical to our credibility,” he says. “Even if you don’t have administrators breathing down your neck, it’s extremely difficult anyway to print honest news if you have somebody exerting control over you.”

Former UVA president Robert O’Neil says, “It never occurred to me to intercede at all [with The Cavalier Daily].” Now, as director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, his organization joined a brief urging the Supreme Court to take the Illinois case.

Yet the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case might be a blessing, O’Neil says. “Given the current make-up of the court, my fear is that they would have taken it to affirm the Court of Appeals, thus making nationwide the Hazelwood standard that now only effects three states—Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.”(Will Goldsmith, C-Ville Weekly, February 28, 2006)