First Amendment Law Clinic celebrates 15 years educating, defending students

Nancy Costello began her career as a journalist, covering stories for 15 years here in Michigan with the Detroit Free Press and for news outlets across the country, including the Associated Press. Although not in her original plan, she later made a career shift to attend law school.

But sticking with her journalist roots, she became interested in issues relating to media law, freedom of the press and First Amendment cases. After graduating law school and working as a litigation attorney, Costello came to Michigan State University’s College of Law where she began teaching legal writing and media law to students.

Though the idea first started as an internship program where MSU law school students offered legal guidance to high school journalism students, Costello ultimately founded and began directing the MSU First Amendment Law Clinic in January 2011 to teach free speech and press rights to high school students and provide MSU law students with real-world experience.

Now, 15 years later, the clinic is still going strong and has educated almost 14,000 high school students across 47 Michigan high schools.

How the clinic operates

What makes the First Amendment Clinic so unique is that it is the only law school clinic in the nation that focuses on defending student press and speech rights, and it does so pro bono.

“We are not intimidated by the fact that legal representation can cost a lot of money,” said Costello, who is also a clinical professor. “We have the student power to make it happen. For young people who cannot afford representation, there is no other law clinic in the country that solely defends student press and student speech rights. That is why we exist.”

Each semester, Costello takes up to 12 students, and they work in pairs teaching at as many as six high schools that are within 90 miles of MSU’s campus.

MSU law students will teach workshops on eight Fridays each semester, and they make it a point to serve a variety of school district types from Detroit and Flint to rural and suburban school districts across the state.

Law students leading

There is no better way for MSU law students to learn First Amendment law than by being the teachers themselves. Each of the eight First Amendment workshops covers a different area from student speech and press rights to social media law, to copyright infringement, and to libel and privacy law, among other topics. The workshops culminate in a jeopardy-style game to test the high schoolers’ knowledge.

The clinic works with the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, or MIPA, an organization of high school journalism faculty advisors, which is housed at MSU’s School of Journalism, to make connections with Michigan classrooms.

Students who received the training, such as Tyler Conrad and Caitlin McBride, went to MSU Law and served as First Amendment clinicians but got their first exposure when they attended the workshops as high school students.

Other current students have worked at the clinic, such as Haley Watson, in her second year of law school. She became interested in the clinic after taking Costello’s legal writing class that focused on intellectual property law. Wanting to gain more experience with First Amendment issues, she enrolled in Costello's clinic.

“My favorite part was the teaching days,” Watson said. “It was exciting to see students engage with the real-time application of the First Amendment, especially as new issues were emerging in our current government administration. Their curiosity and enthusiasm made the discussions dynamic and rewarding.”

Aside from gaining experience educating, MSU law students also have been involved in important speech cases and delivered victories for First Amendment freedoms. Cases have included school districts trying to bar students from covering meetings — in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act — and administrators blocking publication of school news. Other cases involved defending a student’s religious right to wear a hijab as an athlete on a high school track team, as well as a student’s right to criticize a teacher on social media, despite objections by school administrators.

In one case, law students defended a high school journalist who submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to a high school seeking information about school budget cut decisions that were made behind closed doors. The school wanted to charge the student journalist more than $20,000 in research costs to fulfill the request. When the case made national news on the Rachel Maddow Show, the school embarrassedly relented and turned over information to the student journalist for free.

Launching professional careers

Over the years, the clinic has helped hundreds of law students not only gain First Amendment knowledge but, in some cases, pursue legal careers with press law. For others, working in the clinic was a springboard for working in other fields, such as education law.

The MSU First Amendment Law Clinic is the only clinical program in the country solely dedicated to the protection of student speech and press rights.

There are other national organizations that do advocacy, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE. Haley Gluhanich, who now serves as the senior program counsel for FIRE’s campus advocacy department, started her legal journey as a Spartan. Now, she defends the free speech rights of students and faculty at higher education institutions across the country.

Gluhanich chose MSU Law because of the First Amendment Clinic, as it offered First Amendment experience in a non-litigation way that is not offered at most clinics. At MSU, she also directed content for the McLellan Online Free Speech Library, which Costello supervises.

“I owe my career success to Professor Costello and this clinic,” Gluhanich said. “This clinic gave me so many of the skills I use in my current role: comprehending case law, explaining complex concepts to different education levels, making public records requests and, well, making free speech fun. In my role, I get to do a little bit of everything, and what I do each day really depends on what is happening in the country. It is exciting, it is interesting and it is where I see myself working until, I retire.”

She continues to stay in touch with MSU Law, providing guest lectures to Costello’s media law classes.

As for Watson, she said the clinic strengthened her oral advocacy skills, helping her become more confident in presenting arguments and responding in real time, which will aid her career as a trial attorney in civil litigation.

An additional success that’s resulted from the clinic is Street Law Day, a voluntary program led by two students who Costello selects from the clinic. Nearly two dozen law students train high school students about their Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights and, more importantly, how to survive uncomfortable, or even hostile, confrontations with police. In total, over five years, Street Law events have trained more than 4,000 young Detroiters at Cass Tech and Renaissance high schools about their Fourth Amendment rights. Experience participating in the program has also led to several MSU law students launching successful careers.

“I have always been interested in the First Amendment and Constitution. Because of my journalism background, I have always believed in free speech and free press issues. It is really important to me,” Costello said. “I hope my students see me as a person who is willing to take on an unpopular issue and fight for it. It is why I believe so strongly in the mission of this clinic.”

Contact the clinic to learn more or to get in touch.