A lawsuit filed almost five years ago against the Ithaca City School District dealing with potential First Amendment restrictions on The Tattler high school newspaper is moving forward with an appeal sometime this summer.

In 2004, The Tattler criticized the newly hired principal Joe Wilson. The administration placed restrictions on the student-run paper, forcing students to show the administration issues and disclose story ideas prior to printing.

Ray Schlather, who is representing The Tattler, said the underlying issue of the case is whether The Tattler is an open public forum or a limited public forum. In 2009, a judge determined it was a limited public forum, which meant the school district had the right to restrict certain content.

The judge also determined that some restrictions placed on The Tattler were unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Norman A. Mordue dismissed half of the former editors’ claims and sustained half of the editors’ claims. The judge said it was unconstitutional for the administration to put restriction on the paper in terms of requiring them to show the paper before it got published and to get story ideas cleared. Schlather said the former editors were granted in January the permission to appeal the dismissal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the appeal should be determined by the fall.

Schlather said if any high school newspaper should be entitled to the protections of an open public forum newspaper it is The Tattler because it has a circulation of more than 3,000 copies, it supports itself through advertisements and editors work on it during their free time he said.

Gregg Johnson, who is representing the district, said the school district appropriately regulated the paper’s content.

“While [the paper] is a vehicle for providing media experience for the students, it has always been a district- and school-sponsored newspaper,” he said.

The Student Press Law Center, an advocacy center for student free-press rights, will be filing a brief in support of The Tattler. Frank LoMonte, executive director of SPLC, said the case is the most important high school journalism case in the past 20 years because it presents the issue of whether students can address controversial material in their publication.

“If the students win this case, it’s a huge message to school administrators that students are allowed to take on controversial topics and that the First Amendment doesn’t permit censorship just because material makes fun of school policies,” he said.

Lead plaintiff Robert Ochshorn, a former editor, said the opportunity for students to exercise their right to a free press is important and the paper provides a platform for students to do so.

“We believe the First Amendment is worth standing up for,” he said.