Posted on 03/11/2006 1:00:05 PM PST by wagglebee
An Alaska high school violated a student's free speech rights by suspending him after he unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" across the street from the school, a federal court ruled on Friday.
Joseph Frederick, a student at Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska, displayed the banner -- which refers to smoking marijuana -- in January 2002 to try to get on television as the Olympic torch relay was passing the school.
Principal Deborah Morse seized the banner and suspended the 18-year-old for 10 days, saying he had undermined the school's educational mission and anti-drug stance.
Friday's ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a decision by a federal court in Alaska that backed Frederick's suspension and said his rights were not violated.
The appeals court said the banner was protected speech because it did not disrupt school activity and was displayed off school grounds during a non-curricular activity.
"Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in the court's opinion.
The court also cleared the way for Frederick to seek damages, saying Morse was aware of relevant case law and should have known her actions violated his rights.
The same place the Supreme Court ruled that free speech doesn't protect a person's right to insult another, or shout "Fire" in a crowded theatre, or in general use freedom of speech to act belligenrently.
I'm not saying the kid should be prosecuted. I'm saying that the principal was right to suspend him.
"Supreme Court ruled that free speech doesn't protect a person's right to insult another"
When was that? Comedians are going to have a tough time.
Oh! and I guess those publishers of the Mo... cartoons, too.
"the principal was right to suspend him"
The principal overstepped her authority by
violating the civil rights of a citizen and
then compounding that violation with further
punishment potentially damaging to the citizen's
future prospects for which she had no grounds.
This kind of fascism by state authority should
be met with the greatest possible opposition by
all who reckognize the workings of tyranny.
If it had said Bush for President it would have been banned.
Exactly. You can eat the herbs(brownies) but you really shouldn't smoke the herb.. that's bad.
All great mathematical ideas come with a single instance of realization. But then you spend several days trying to make sure it works and many many times it's a dumb idea.
It's a lot like baseball, mathematics is frustrating, you fail most of the time, even for the great ones, even when you think you understand everything.
I didn't know, Torie, that you were a UChicago Maroon (assuming the movie didn't change the location and UChicago are still the Maroons). How did you come out alive?
Apparently, the only way a student can get away with mentioning Jesus is if he or she is promoting drug use. Here's guessing the decision would have been different if the sign said, "Worship Jesus."
When did the Supreme Court rule either of those things? I think you've at best ridiculously overstated the breadth of existing exceptions.
With some difficulty. That first year in college was the toughest year of my life, in almost all aspects. It was an annealing experience. The intellectual demands, the demand to read tough convuluted prose original texts, in qualtity, was almost simply too much for an 18-19 year old. It really was. Those that survived it, back then, are truly a band of brothers. After that, it became somewhat easier, and the MBA at the Chicago business school, and the JD at the Michigan Law School, were relative bunny slopes for me.
"Once I stepped beyond its internal logic, the rest was all a self-evident chain of deduction.
Christianity is a faith not a logic system.
All, including the Christ as incarnation of God in history,
is a self-evident chain of deduction in progress.
Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be worthy of the gospel of Christ: that, whether I come and see you, or, being absent, may hear of you, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind labouring together for the faith of the gospel.
"Here's guessing the decision would have been different if the sign said, "Worship Jesus."
There would not have been a decision because the principal most likely would not have exceeded her powers and violated that citizens rights in such a case. The real question is what would she have done had the banner said, "There is no God, but Allah," which truly insults all other faiths?
Well, yeah, UChicago is known as one of the toughest undergrad math programs also.
But I was talking about the neighborhood. Illinois' version of Beirut.
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