After hearing that the two articles had been eliminated from that month's school article, Kuhlmeier and the others felt cheated. They went to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to bring a law suit into the picture. When the first court denied their suit, saying their rights had not been infringed, the students then went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Robert E. Reynolds, Hazelwood's chief and principal, isn't so sure about the news his students are reporting. When he reads the two articles, he finds that in the touchy subjects there isn't enough anonimity to the students interviewed. There wasn't enough fairness within another article because the reporters hadn't interviewed someone part of the given article.
When the case had arrived to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the judges there had sided with Kuhlmeier and the others, saying that their first ammendment right, the right to freedom of speech, was corrupted. With this new information, the push for the justice of the student's lost articles was stronger than ever. Kulhmeier brought Reynolds with her to the Supreme Court for the final judicial writ. After a two year long court case, the verdict for the final decision was with Hazelwood's side. Justice White had made majority vote in saying that the student's rights were not broken. the ratio for majority to minority was five to three, ruling Reynolds as the victor for the famous Hazelwood vs Kuhlmeier case.