Three local news outlets on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit arguing that speech restrictions imposed on members of Penn State’s Board of Trustees are unconstitutional and should be struck down.
StateCollege.com, the Centre Daily Times and Spotlight PA state in the complaint that bylaw changes adopted by the board in the last two years amount to a “gag policy” that violates the Constitution’s First and 14th Amendments.
Bylaw changes approved in 2024 and 2025 require, among other things, that individual trustees seek approval before speaking to the press about matters that have come before the board and prohibit critical statements about the board or the university. Trustees who violate the policies are subject to consequences including admonishment, sanctions or removal.
“Penn State has often faced criticism for a lack of transparency in its operations,” according to the filing. “Through its recent enactment of the Gag Policy, the Board escalated that pattern by unconstitutionally restricting the speech of trustees to the press and public.”
The newsrooms are represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic.
“Penn State’s gag policy not only controls what members of the Board of Trustees can say but also whether they can even speak publicly at all about the Commonwealth’s largest public university, which raises serious constitutional concerns,” attorney Paula Knudsen Burke, of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said.
“Trustees who wish to share their independent insights on important issues are effectively barred from doing so, and the result is a Penn State community and broader public that’s less informed about what’s happening at an institution that reports almost $16 billion in economic impact on Pennsylvania.”
Board Chair David Kleppinger, Vice Chair Richard Sokolov and Governance Committee Chair Daniel Onorato — who are empowered to refer alleged violations of the policy for investigation — and are named as the defendants in the complaint. All three operate under the color of state law in enforcing the bylaws, according to the lawsuit.
A Penn State spokesperson said the university “generally does not comment on pending litigation.”
In July 2024, the board voted to approve amendments to the bylaws’ Code of Conduct and Role and Responsibilities of Trustees sections by a 27-6 vote. Following adoption, the bylaws require that trustees express support for all “majority decisions of the Board,” and prohibit trustees from making “[n]egative or critical public statements about the Board, the University or its students, alumni, community, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders.”
The changes mandated that trustees “shall coordinate all media and press statements, interviews and/or background discussions” with the “Board Office.”
“That provision provides the Board Office, including at least Defendants Kleppinger and Sokolov, with unlimited discretion to censor dissenting trustees and suppress communication of viewpoints with which its members do not agree,” Burke wrote in the filing.
In November 2025, the board further amended the bylaws to remove language that had limited the restriction on speech to statements made “in a Trustee capacity,” effectively eliminating members’ freedom to communicate with the media and the public.
The restrictions, the newsrooms argue, represent unconstitutional prior restraint and impose viewpoint discrimination. Prohibiting “negative or critical” remarks is also unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, they contend.
“This prior restraint reduces and distorts the information available to the public on matters of public concern and facilitates viewpoint discrimination by the Board Office in deciding which trustees can speak and what they can say,” according to the complaint.
The news outlets’ complaint suggests that the restrictions impede both trustees’ right to freedom of speech and the right of the press and the public to receive information, which courts have consistently upheld is protected by the First Amendment.
“The Gag Policy injures Plaintiffs by barring, or at a minimum chilling, otherwise willing speakers from freely communicating information to Plaintiffs’ reporters,” Burke wrote.
At least two trustees have indicated that their willingness to speak about matters of public concern has been chilled by the bylaw amendments.
Anthony Lubrano, who voted against the amendments and who previously expressed a willingness to speak to the press, was admonished by board leadership for a February 2024 television interview and comments at a trustees’ meeting in which he said that Beaver Stadium should be renamed for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, and that the university was wrong for not doing so.
Because the changes had not yet been enacted, Lubrano could not be subjected to further punishments. Since they took effect, Lubrano, whose final term on the board ends in June, has said that the restrictions were “disenfranchis[ing]” alumni-elected trustees.
Trustee Emerita Alice Pope received a letter from board leadership in May 2025 advising her that she had violated the gag policy after co-authoring an op-ed on StateCollege.com, providing a statement in a Spotlight PA report and participating in a Zoom press conference in which she spoke without board approval about the decision to close seven of Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses.
In a declaration accompanying the lawsuit, Pope said that as a result of the policy, she has “become more cautious and selective about what I say publicly, even when I believe speaking would benefit the University and its community.”
She added that if not for the policy and its threat of discipline that could harm her standing and ability to serve on the board, she “would speak fully and without limitation.”
The newsrooms are asking a federal district judge to declare the amended bylaws restricting trustee speech to be in violation of the First and 14th amendments and to bar their enforcement.
“The right to dissent is the lifeblood of democracy,” Heather E. Murray, associate director of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, said. “Blanket bans on trustees making critical statements about Penn State stakeholders and requiring trustees to get pre-approval to talk to journalists about any matters that have come before the board plainly runs afoul of the First Amendment.”
