Student newspaper's good will gone bad

The features staff at the Utah Statesman, the student-run newspaper at Utah State University, recently decided to devote a whole section based on the Greek life of the campus. The articles were actually based on trying to portray the Greek's in a more positive light than the usual "Animal House" stereotypes. Despite this, some of the Greek students took offense to some of the articles' comments, and felt threatened that the articles may give readers the perception that an individual involved in a Greek organization cannot also be a member of the campus' prominent Latter-day Saint (Mormon) religion.

A few vigilante Greek students adorned in Greek logo T-shirts decided to take a stand and began collecting the newspapers from the bins around campus and disposing of them in nearby recycling bins.

The potential for all kinds of criminal violations could be argued in this case. The paper could apply to freedom of the press. The advertisers in the paper could appeal to their commercial speech being restricted. Even more interesting is the potential for the Greek students to claim their conduct as speech. If the students did claim their speech as symbolic, the O'Brien test would likely be applied and the conduct would likely not be protected.

Obviously the more reasonable and simple laws to apply would be the destruction of property but the potential First Amendment situations are more interesting.

According to members on the Utah Statesman editorial staff a complaint has been filed by the newspaper to the associated student organization of the university.