By: Out of the Box

Out of the Box
Fri, 24 Oct 2014 19:54:26 +0000

Yeah, sure. Clearly not in pre-law, are you? The U did not publish the calendar. They submitted it to the court (with faces obscured) as an exhibit. That made it a public record. The court published it. And so far as any defamation, while I am also not in the field of law, I think that it was the students themselves who did the defaming by allowing the pictures to be taken and published via the calendar--and as you point out, they could legally assent on their own behalf. However, as pointed out in the University's defense document (you should really read it), the band is a course for credit offered by the University. The students took the pictures with their band instruments and portions of their band uniforms. And they submitted it to Jon Waters, who I believe was a staff member at the time. This takes their behavior across a line from strictly personal bad taste to being a part of an atmosphere attached to and a part of the curricular offering of the university.