Court denies Klan appeal

From the Fall 2000 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 37.

The U.S. Supreme Court in October decided not to review a February decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis (8th Cir.) which rebuffed an attempt by the Missouri Ku Klux Klan to get a sponsorship message read on a not-for-profit public broadcast radio station located on the University of Missouri at St. Louis campus. (See NM&L, Spring 2000)

KWMU-FM acknowledges programming underwriters on the air. The KKK chapter sought to sponsor four segments of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and asked that the following message be read: “The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a White Christian organization, standing up for rights and values of White Christian America since 1865. For more information, please contact the Klu Klux Klan . . . Let your voice be heard!”

The court held that the station’s underwriting program was not a forum for speech and the denial therefore did not implicate the First Amendment.