WASHINGTON — Public school officials do not violate a student’s free-speech rights when they prohibit displays that promote illegal drug use, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 25.
The 5–4 decision appeared to satisfy religious groups, which had expressed concern that a ruling could give schools power to limit student religious expression that officials find offensive. But in the opinion, the majority emphasized the limited nature of the holding, which is confined to illegal drug use.
The case, Morse v. Frederick, concerns then-high-school student Joseph Frederick, now 24, who unfurled a 14-feet-long “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner as the Olympic torch passed near the Alaskan school in 2002. Frederick later testified that he intended the banner “to be meaningless and funny, in order to get on television.”
But Deborah Morse, former principal of Juneau-Douglas High School, suspended Frederick for 10 days because she said the banner promoted illegal drug use in violation of school policy.
Frederick sued and won the backing of several conservative religious organizations. Though they disagreed with the message in question, the groups — such as the Christian Legal Society and the American Center for Law and Justice — worried that the court might cut back on student free-speech rights established in a series of earlier rulings that applied to political and religious expression.
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