As reported in the Phoenix New Times, Republican State Rep Russell Pearce, a religious Mormon and co-chair of the Arizona House Appropriations Committee, doesn't seem to think much of first ammendment.

Pearce inserted language into this fiscal year's state budget that would eliminate funding for campus publications altogether because they have run articles and photos that he deemed offensive.

Though the New Times reported that insiders think Governor Janet Napolitano will use her line-item veto to remove Pearce's provision, this is not the first attack from religious conservatives on college papers in the state.

Previously, Ira Fulton, a very wealthy Mormon, complained to Michael Crow, the President of ASU, about an illustration in the campus paper that included a bared breast. Crow responded to Fulton by threatening to eliminate funding to the paper, the State Press.

Now, the university administration doesn't even have the spine to oppose Pearce's proposed legislation, instead it chose to, as the article states, "hint to Pearce that it would prefer he drop his effort to eliminate funding to campus publications."

Way to know that the administrators are standing up for their students' right to free speech.