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Recently, campus editors have been pressured to print ads and inserts denying the reality of the Holocaust. For instance, the infamous Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust and Bradley Smith, a notorious leader in the Holocaust-denial movement, have prepared "The Revisionist: A Journal of Independent Thought," an insert targeting college newspapers. The insert includes inflammatory articles contesting the existence of Nazi gas chambers and attacking the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for "knowingly exploit[ing] a known fraud to propagate the 'genocide' theory."

While it may seem that deciding whether to print these vicious inserts and ads poses difficult constitutional questions, the legal answer is quite simple: The First Amendment absolutely, unequivocally does not require a private, independent campus newspaper to run every advertisement submitted to it. In a letter to its members, The Collegiate Network, which has threatened to expel any member publication accepting these ads, explained, "No newspaper, campus or otherwise, is obligated to sell advertising to any hate group. This is not a free speech issue. . . ."

Undoubtedly, Holocaust-deniers have the same right to free speech as everyone else. Even their despicable, racist speech is protected by the Constitution. They may stand on street corners or in public parks, asserting that the Nazi genocide never occurred. They may hold meetings and send flyers through the mail. The government cannot censor or punish them. This is the guarantee of the First Amendment -- no more and no less. However, the First Amendment does not secure anyone the right to co-opt a private newspaper. Private companies are not bound by the constraints of the First Amendment, and individuals have no First Amendment right to commandeer a private, professional or college newspaper and force it to run a story or advertisement. One Federal appellate court observed: "The right to freedom of speech does not open every avenue to one who desires to use a particular outlet for expression."