Q: Recently our vice president asked the student news media to send a written request two weeks in advance of their desire to take photographs inside the campus bookstore during open hours.
Is that legal? Or does the bookstore on a public college property outside the classroom count as public property? Would the same apply to the Administration Building, where students line up for appointments?
A: Whether the college’s vice-presidents can legitimately restrict the student photojournalists from taking photographs in the campus bookstore during open hours may depend on whether the bookstore is a privately operated business. If it is, and it merely leases space from the college, then with advance notification, it may be able to limit admission to those who are there only for the purposes of conducting bookstore business.
That the message came form the vice-president, and not from the bookstore directly, implies that this exclusion is not the bookstore’s policy but the college’s policy. If it is the college’s policy, then the restriction may be an improper infringement on the student’s ability to gather news. It is not immediately obvious that the bookstore would present the situation in which someone’s privacy rights were being violated or in which the act of photography would be seriously disruptive, the conditions which usually justify such restrictions.
For public spaces, such as the Administration Building, one generally will have a right to photograph.
I am not aware of any cases in which a court has considered this specific issue. You may want to contact the Student Press Law Center (www.splc.org) or the National Press Photographers Association (www.nppa.org) to see if they have encountered it.
Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to First Amendment Coalition hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.