● The University of Alabama did not violate students’ free speech rights when it shut down two university-sponsored magazines that catered to specific audiences based on race and sex, respectively, a federal judge has ruled. The case concerns a 2025 decision by the university to shut down “Alice,” a campus magazine “by and for women,” and “Nineteen Fifty-Six,” which described itself as a “Black student-led magazine that amplifies Black voices.” The lawsuit was filed by several students formerly affiliated with the shuttered magazines.
● “The Free Speech Clause does not dictate what classes UA must offer or what magazines UA must publish,” U.S. District Judge Edmund G. LaCour wrote. “And because UA was not required to open the magazines, it is not required to maintain them.” LaCour wrote further that the university’s decision to shut down magazines “by and for” students of just one race or sex is a “content-based decision” and not discrimination against Black or female viewpoints.
● The university moved to shut down the magazines out of concerns that they could run afoul of the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal anti-discrimination laws. The judge, a Trump appointee, stated that it was “reasonable” for the university to shut down the magazines and replace them with one that is open to content by and for all UA students. LaCour also wrote that articles like those published in the two magazines had been published in other campus news publications, which he said undermines the students’ argument that the university discriminated against their viewpoints.
The bigger picture:
The situation at UA is just one of multiple examples of how the Trump administration’s proddings have led institutions of higher learning to kowtow to the administration’s vision of what it means to root out discrimination.
As The EDU Ledger has reported, many university administrators have been uneasy and uncertain about what kinds of initiatives and programs are legally permissible ways to create a campus environment that is welcoming and supportive of students from historically oppressed groups. That uneasiness is due to Trump administration guidance from the Education Department that urged institutions to end what it termed as their “reprehensible” and “repugnant race-based preferences” or risk federal funding — even though a federal judge found in 2025 that the guidance circumvented certain federal rulemaking procedures and violated academic freedom and freedom of speech.
The Department of Education dropped its appeal of that ruling in February, but the effects of the guidance still linger.
Trump delivered a commencement speech at UA in May 2025. The decision to shut down the magazines took place in late 2025.
