Morse v. Frederick

''Morse v. Frederick'', 551 U.S. 393 (2007), is a United States Supreme Court case where the Court held, 5–4, that the First Amendment does not prevent educators from prohibiting or punishing student speech that is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.

In 2002, Juneau-Douglas High School principal Deborah Morse suspended student Joseph Frederick after he displayed a banner reading "BONG 4 JESUS" across the street from the school during the 2002 Winter Olympics torch relay. Frederick sued, claiming his constitutional rights to free speech were violated. His suit was dismissed by the federal district court, but on appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed the ruling, concluding that Frederick's speech rights were violated. The case then went on to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, concluded that school officials did not violate the First Amendment. To do so, he made three legal determinations. First, under the existing school speech precedents ''Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District'' (1969), ''Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser'' (1986) and ''Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier'' (1988), students do have free speech rights in school, but those rights are subject to limitations in the school environment that would not apply to the speech rights of adults outside school. Supreme Court cases since ''Tinker'' have generally sided with schools when student conduct rules have been challenged on free speech grounds. Second, the "school speech" doctrine applied because Frederick's speech occurred at a school-supervised event. Finally, the Court held that the speech could be restricted in a school environment, even though it wasn't disruptive under the ''Tinker'' standard, because "the government interest in stopping student drug abuse...allow[s] schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting illegal drug use." Provided by Wikipedia