Center Files Supreme Court Brief in Student Speech Case.

The CLS Center filed a "friend of the court" brief with the United States Supreme Court in a potentially important case involving the First Amendment limits on the power of public schools officials to restrict student expression. The case is Morse v. Frederick, No. 06-278.

The principal of a Juneau, Alaska, public high school suspended student Joseph Frederick for unveiling a banner reading "Bong Hits for Jesus" during an Olympic torch relay. The school had released students from school to witness the event. Frederick apparently did not intend to convey any particular message with his banner; he instead simply hoped to garner attention, particularly from the television cameras that were present. Frederick was across the street from school property when he displayed the banner. The principal suspended him on the ground that the banner encouraged illegal drug use, something contrary to the message the school tries to send students. The Court of Appeals held that this violated his Free Speech Clause rights.

Although the CLS Center has no sympathy for Frederick's tasteless banner and his juvenile stunt, it filed a brief to alert the Court to problems that might arise if the Court ruled in the school district's favor. In their briefs, the district and some of its supporting amici sought undue power over student speech. The CLS brief argued that if the Court conferred such broad power on public school officials, they would almost certainly employ that power to suppress controversial religious expression, including the right to associate around shared convictions and moral standards.