Monday, June 25, 2007

Morse v. Frederick: Quick Reaction

Well, I was wrong. The Supreme Court today did rule that the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner was unfurled at a school sanctioned event, even if the offender was off campus at the time.

The Court ruled that the event was both school sanctioned and school supervised and under those conditions, the school and the principal being sued may confiscate the banner and suspend the student without violating First Amendment rights. While it is true that students have First Amendemnt rights that are not shed at the school house gate, they don't have the same protection as adults when in a the special constraints of a school environment.

The Court looked at previous cases dealing with speeches by students in a school environment, namely Tinker v. Des Moines and Bethel School District v. Fraser in finding that speech may be limited, in particular when dealing with lewd or drug related speech, particularly finding that with drug related speech, the schools have an important, possibly even compelling interest in preventing drug use in minors.

Reading through the opinion on a fast level, the case does indeed hinge on the categorization of the event as school sponosored and school sanctioned. Without that determination, I don't think that the Court could have even come close to this decision.

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