Agence France Presse - Supreme Court Hears Student Speech Case

March 19, 2007
by Fanny Carrier, AFP News

The Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments about whether a US high school was within its rights for suspending a student who had unfurled a banner proclaiming "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," in one of the quirkier free speech cases to come before America's top court.

Student Joseph Frederick drew the ire of his school principal in Juneau, Alaska, on January 24, 2002, when the then-18 year-old unveiled the huge banner in front of television cameras as the Olympic flame passed in front of a crowd.

Principal Deborah Morse who had authorized her students to leave school to attend the event, was not amused by Frederick's linkage between Jesus and a bong, a pipe used to smoke marijuana. She took away the banner and suspended Frederick from school for 10 days.

Frederick took his case to court, arguing that his free speech rights, protected under the First Amendment, had been violated, and demanding damages from Morse.

The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices on Monday seemed disinclined to accept the school's proposition.

"Getting rid of speech that is inconsistent with the school policy ... this is a very disturbing argument," said Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court's more conservative members.

But the court also seemed a bit uncertain about how they might weigh students' free speech rights had the banner had been slightly more outrageous or politically partisan.

And to some degree, they seemed outright baffled during court arguments about the student's defiant act.

"Does anybody know what the statement means?" asked a perplexed Justice David Souter, during the arguments.

Morse's attorney Kenneth Starr argued that school officials need to be able to impose discipline, which has the approval of the National School Board Association.

"This case is ultimately about drugs," said Starr, who rose to fame as an independent prosecutor during the 1998 Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, the investigation of US President Bill Clinton and his relationship with a White House intern.

"To promote drugs is utterly inconsistent with the primary educational mission of the school," Starr said, arguing that a school is not obligated to tolerate a message that appears to take a permissive attitude toward illegal drugs.

The case has drawn heavy hitters, including the powerful American Civil Liberties Union, which backed Frederick, as did the American Center for Law and Justice, which specializes in constitutional law, and which submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the student.

Surprisingly, some religious groups also have taken Frederick's side, putting President George W. Bush's conservative support base at odds with the administration.

Meanwhile, the US government has sided with the school. Deputy solicitor general Edwin Kneedler argued that the banner's reference to a bong is tantamount to an endorsement of illicit drug use.

For his part, Frederick, now 23, said he had unfurled the banner as a "free speech experiment."

The banner is "absurdly funny. It doesn't make any sense at all," he said in a recent telephone news conference from China where he studies and teaches.

"What the banner said was 'look here, I have the right to free speech and I'm asserting it'," he said.

"I wasn't trying to say anything about religion, I wasn't trying to say anything about drugs," he said. "The phrase was not important."

It is to some: T-shirts with the slogan "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" are selling like hot cakes on the Internet.