Supreme Court takes 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' free speech case

[CatWoman]

Will Scalia faint?

Alito get the vapors?

Clarence Thomas excuse himself to hit his own bong?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A high school student's controversial banner with the words "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," which led to his suspension, will be argued before the Supreme Court, in an unusual free speech dispute.

The justices Friday accepted an appeal from Juneau, Alaska, school board officials, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit filed by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.

He was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the sign -- a reference to marijuana use -- just outside school grounds when the Olympic torch relay was moving through the Alaskan capital, headed for the Salt Lake City Winter Games.

"Bong," as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, "is a slang term for drug paraphernalia."

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2006/12/supreme-court-takes-bong-hits-4-jesus.html

[terryg11]

1. this should be a slam dunk case for freedom of speech

how can Alito, Scalia and Thomas not support this kid's rights to say what he wants especially something as benign as this?

[CatWoman]

2. just because they are who they are

:smoke:

[MindPilot]

3. If he was off school grounds, how can he be suspended?

I asked the very same question when I was suspended for "smoking on school grounds" even though I was in a car with my dad on the street at the time. That was 1970 and I still haven't received an answer.

[PhenyxReturns]

4. Wait a minute...

...he was off school grounds? And they suspended him?

[CatWoman]

6. it's Alaska

whaddaya want? :)

[PhenyxReturns]

8. More sanity...

...or a moose to bite teh principal.

[CatWoman]

9. BTW

Welcome to DU

:hi:

[PhenyxReturns]

24. Welcome back actually

I was once banned for being an un-repentant jackass. :)

[Wonk]

27. Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye

re: "I was once banned for being an un-repentant jackass."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html

If you have been banned from Democratic Underground, you are not permitted to log on again using a different username. Previously banned members will be immediately banned, regardless of behavior.

[MindPilot]

10. "just outside school grounds "

is what the article says.

[PhenyxReturns]

25. Right

as in "not on school grounds"

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. If the kid was off school property...

they had NO right to suspend him for his - I can see why the fed allowed this case to proceed.

[Toots]

19. The catch is though it was a school sponsored activity

He was off the school grounds and on the sidewalk of a city street but school was let out for the event...I think he still has a right to make a statement though and I hope the court will agree but the School's attorney is Ken Starr of Clinton investigation fame and he is doing it pro bono just for the publicity....

[Tinksrival]

23. I don't think this is a school sponsored activity:

"Olympic torch relay was moving through the Alaskan capital, headed for the Salt Lake City Winter Games."
It wasn't a school sport event. :shrug: They ran an Olympic torch through my town too.
Just a kid goof'in around and they have to ruin his life? People need to chill, seriously.

[Toots]

33. I misstated the sponsored part. It was not school sponsored but just a school activity

School was let out for all that wanted to attend the relay. After the relay they were to return back to class. In effect they were still under school supervision and the school was still responsible for them.

[MrCoffee]

7. this will be 9-0 in favor of the kid.

[The Straight Story]

11. Well, given how employers can fire you for smoking at home, this may stand....

Does not matter where you are, you do something that a person who has power over you does not like and you can be punished. Damned shame it is like this in a 'free' country.

[dogday]

13. Have to agree with you there

Seems like our right to be secure in our person and home has been raped....

[porphyrian]

12. I'll have to take one of those. - n/t

[lectrobyte]

14. Sounds like something out of a King Missile song

Jesus was way cool
Everybody liked Jesus
Everybody wanted to hang out with him
Anything he wanted to do, he did
He turned water into wine
And if he wanted to
He could have turned wheat into marijuana
Or sugar into cocaine
Or vitamin pills into amphetamines

[MrCoffee]

15. Detachable Bong Hits 4 Jesus

:rofl:

[zeemike]

16. No no no they got it wrong

Drug paraphernalia is a slang term for a Bong.

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. Like ScAlito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas don't know what a BONG is???

:smoke::hippie:

OK..:eyes:

[Xithras]

18. Courts have upheld the rights of schools to punish students for off-campus activities.

Courts have ruled in the past that in loco parentis can be extended from the point where the child leaves parental custody in the morning (when they leave home) to the point where they return to parental custody (when they get home after school). Even when I was in school, we had plenty of kids suspended or expelled for getting in fights on their way home from class. If the kid committed a rules violation during school hours, and thought that he could just step off school grounds to avoid penalty, he's wrong.

That said, this particular case is a losing one for the school. The 1969 Tinker case is one of the most famous student rights rulings ever, and in it the Supreme Court ruled that "conduct by the student, in class or out of it, which for any reason - whether it stems from time, place, or type of behavior - materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others is, of course, not immunized by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech." This Tinker Test is (or should be) well known by every school administrator.

In order to punish the student for a speech-based violation, the school would have to prove that his actions disrupted classwork, created substantial disorder, or invaded the rights of others. In this case the school district is in the wrong, because the students banner, being displayed off grounds, did none of the above. He could ONLY be punished if his banner led to a riot or some kind of confrontation, and from what I understand it did none of the above. The school is wrong, and the kid is right.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. notice who took the case...for free:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060504/ai_n16344705

[CatWoman]

21. I saw that

funny how he crawls out from under his rock every couple years, isn't it?

:hi:

[Greyhound]

28. Ah, the prick from Pepperdine. n/t

[Duncan Grant]

22. What a great username: Bong_Hits_4_Jesus

Nothing ambiguous about that, is there? :smoke:

[CatWoman]

29. are we about to see a change in the near future?

:smoke:

[Duncan Grant]

30. It's certainly rolls off the tongue a lot easier than 94114_San_Francisco.

Speaking of rolling... :D

[CatWoman]

31. lol

:)

[Skip Intro]

26. If his sign had read, "GO USA," would they have suspedned him?

I think not. It boils down, blatantly, to whether the kid has a right to speak his mind, express himself, within the confines of what is not deemed "obscene."

Do Americans have a right to free speech or not? That is the question.

In what country do these freedom-haters (school board, starr, and gingrich and bush and....) think they live?

The SC vote on this will be interesting. I can't see how it could be anything other thn 9-0 in the kid's favor.

[johnfunk]

32. I wonder if Clarence "Long Bong Silver" Thomas will write an opinion?

Will he cite the "Rainy Day Women" precedent? Bob Marley or Jimmy Cliff?

[uppityperson]

34. Quotes from an ACLU lawyer in Juneau last spring.

"The reason I came out today is because the School Board's refusal to acknowledge that students have free speech rights is disgraceful...Where the district goes wrong is thinking that they can suppress or punish speech and that it won't take place," he said.

"Aside from being anti-American and anti-First Amendment, it's not effective," he said. "If they want an effective anti-drug message, then they need to have an effective anti-drug message."

"The solution to speech that you don't like is not to punish it," he said. "The solution is to have a better message, and that's the lesson these people need to learn."
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/051006/loc_20060510011.shtml

Glad this is still going on, will be watching with interest how they defend this free speech issue.