[2] The Kennedy Memorial Foundation and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press created the center at the recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into High School Journalism in Captive Voices, a book that found that censorship was pervasive and identified the need for an organization that would stand up for students’ First Amendment rights.

It was previously headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, where it shared a suite of offices with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

[16][17] Its efforts led to proposed legislation in ten states: in Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri,[18][19] Nebraska,[20] New Jersey,[21] New York,[22] Iowa,[23] Tennessee,[24] West Virginia, and Texas.

[28][29][30] In 2021, attorneys from the Student Press Law Center, alongside other free-speech groups, submitted an amicus curiae in the supreme court case Mahanoy Area School District v.

On January 23, 2007, SPLC successfully completed a three-year $3.75 million endowment campaign, spurred by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.