Justices Weigh Free Speech for Students

JUDY WOODRUFF:

In January of 2002, while standing along a parade route just across from his Juneau, Alaska, high school, then 18-year-old Joe Frederick unfurled a 14-foot-long banner which read, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

Frederick freely admitted he was challenging school authority. School principal Deborah Morse quickly confiscated the banner and suspended Frederick for 10 days. Frederick sued Principal Morse and the school board for violating his First Amendment rights to free speech.

He lost at the federal district level, but won in appeals court. Morse then appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which today heard oral arguments in the case.

As always, NewsHour regular Marcia Coyle was in the courtroom, and she joins us now.

Marcia, good to see you.

MARCIA COYLE, National Law Journal:

Nice to see you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

So this entire case stems from a high-school student holding up a banner?

MARCIA COYLE:

It does, absolutely, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," a 14-foot banner. He used duct tape to spell out the words.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

And why did it make it all the way to the Supreme Court?

MARCIA COYLE:

Well, the school board and the principal lost in the lower court. And the school principal is represented by former Solicitor General Ken Starr. He's taking on this case without pay.

And I think he made a compelling case to the Supreme Court that, one, look, it's been 20 years since you've taken a students' speech case. And right now in the lower courts, there are a lot of speech cases. And the lower courts are struggling to find, what is the line between what is protected speech and what isn't?

So I think the Supreme Court took the case, not only to say whether or not "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is protected or not protected speech, but to give the lower courts some guidance in this area.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

That was part of the argument that he made in the court making the decision. So he started off today…

MARCIA COYLE:

He did.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

… because it was the principal — this is Ms. Morse — who was bringing this case, ostensibly. What did he say?

MARCIA COYLE:

It's important, also, to note that the principal and the school board are not only challenging whether the student's rights were violated, but she also faces potential damages. And that's a second issue in the case.

And Mr. Starr was first up at the lectern in the court, in a very crowded courtroom, for a very lively argument, and he said, This case is really about drug use. This was a banner that was promoting drug use, a message that was inconsistent with the school's anti-drug policy and disruptive of the school's educational mission.

Justice Kennedy came in quickly and said, Well, is this really just about drug use? I mean, what rule do you want from us? What do you want us to say?

And Mr. Starr said that he thinks the court should look back to 1969 and a Supreme Court decision that said that, when student speech is disruptive of the educational mission, it can be restricted.