Watching the Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in the Morse v. Frederick case. Why should we care? The case may prove to be as significant as the Tinker v. Des Moines BOE decision in further defining the speech rights of students in the public school setting. (The offending speech act: “Bong Hits for Jesus” presented on a publicly displayed banner.)

As information becomes available, consider the following issues in your own deliberations on the case:

• What defines a school-sanctioned event? Who controls and is therefore responsible for that space?
• What is political speech?
• Does a school have a responsibility to control illegal-drug-sanctioned speech and thus inculcate a value system? (Consider outcome of the Bethel v. Fraser case.)
• Does a religious viewpoint play a part in this case?
• Should a school official be held financially responsible for a disciplinary action against a student (if the action is not deemed negligent or abusive)?

Could this case set precedent for public school officials having control over non-school spaces and public forums? (Can a school discipline a student or teacher for writings on a personal Web site?)

If you are interested in doing more research on this topic, check out my other blogspot on First Amendment Love = http://firstamendmentlove.blogspot.com/