Healy v. James

Facts of the Case

During the era of civil unrest in the late 1960s, a group of students at Central Connecticut State College organized a local chapter of Students for Democratic Society (SDS), which was a militant national “anti-establishment” organization that promoted not only civil disobedience but also violent disruption in higher education. The students filed an application for official recognition from the college's committee for campus organizations. The committee expressed concern about the activities of the national SDS organization, to which the chapter representatives replied that their group would remain completely independent and unaffiliated. In response to the committee's inquiries as to whether they would engage in violent or other disruptive activities, the representatives gave no assurances, stating that it would depend on the circumstances.

After a second hearing, the committee recommended, on a six-to-two vote, that the college's president approve the group's recognition application. However, several days later, the president rescinded the approval, explaining that he found the group's philosophy antithetical to the institution's policies (including their repudiation of academic freedom) and that he doubted the group's avowed independence. When the members of the group met in the campus center's coffee shop to discuss the rejection, the president had them disbanded due to their lack of official recognition.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, the students subsequently filed suit in federal court, claiming that the rejection of recognition violated their First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Ruling that the president had denied the plaintiff-students procedural due process by basing his decision on conclusions about the group's affiliation that were outside the record before him, the federal trial court in Connecticut ordered him to hold a hearing to explore this matter. At the hearing, the students reaffirmed their lack of connection to the national organization. After reviewing the expanded record, the president reaffirmed his prior decision for reasons paralleling his original explanation, including what he characterized as the group's “disruptive influence.” The court then summarily ruled in the college's favor, and the Second Circuit affirmed on a two-to-one vote. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

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