Students at the University of Alabama filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to challenge the university’s suspension of two student-run magazines, Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice, according to the complaint described in reporting. The lawsuit targets the school’s decision to stop the magazines in December and asks for reinstatement, arguing that university officials violated students’ First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit alleges that university officials suspended and defunded the magazines because administrators disfavored the publications’ editorial perspectives tied to race and gender. It says a university official told editors the magazines were being immediately stopped, and that the stated basis was the magazines’ “perceived target audience,” while also referencing guidance tied to the Trump administration’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on college campuses, as described in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit’s account, Nineteen Fifty-Six has been in publication for the past five years, and it is named after the year the university’s first Black student, Autherine Lucy Foster, was allowed to enroll. The most recent edition described in the reporting included material on the experiences of international students and an article about “creating camaraderie on campus” amid diversity program rollbacks.
The complaint also challenges the university’s decision to stop Alice, which the lawsuit described as published for 10 years. Reporting on the most recent issue of Alice said it included beauty content, including alternatives for high-end cosmetics, along with political pieces about misogyny in heavy metal music and an article addressing the politics of reproductive issues.
The students suing are represented by attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU of Alabama. Sam Boyd, a senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said: “Students at the University of Alabama deserve the right to freely express themselves, including their viewpoints shaped by their experiences as women and Black people.” Boyd added that “Their lived experiences are valid, important to the fabric of this country’s history and should be shared without interference.”
University spokesman Alex House said the university has no plans to comment on the pending litigation. House also said in December that the university remains committed to supporting all students and that “in doing so, we must also comply with our legal obligations.”
The decision to suspend the magazines prompted protests on campus, according to the reporting. Neither magazine, as described in the account, restricted who could work on staff.