Court Backs School On Speech Curbs

Deborah Morse, former principal of Juneau-Douglas High School, spoke to reporters outside the Supreme Court in March. The court backed Morse's suspension of a student who displayed a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at a school-sponsored event. (By Evan Vucci -- Associated Press)

The case, Morse v. Frederick, No. 06-278, had created unusual alliances, with Frederick receiving the support not only of civil libertarians, gay rights advocates and proponents of medical marijuana but also conservative Christian legal organizations.

Lambda Legal, which advocates equal rights for gay and lesbian students, backed Frederick out of concern that a ruling in favor of the principal might encourage administrators to prohibit students from openly declaring their gay, lesbian or bisexual orientation.

For their part, the Christian groups argued that a broad ruling in favor of the schools could be used to punish students who express religion-based opposition to homosexuality, in school districts whose policies call for tolerance of gay people.

Negron said the "jury is still out" on those matters after yesterday's ruling, but some who filed friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of Frederick said the Alito-Kennedy concurrence means that the decision will not affect cases involving student speech about sexuality.

"It is unfortunate that the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to depart from its long-held practice of protecting the free speech rights of students," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization. "However, the decision should have a limited effect because it applies only to student speech that promotes illegal drug use."

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also joined the majority. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented, arguing that Frederick had raised a "nonsense banner," which advocated nothing, legal or illegal, and that the court's opinion could be read to permit broad censorship.

"[T]he court's ham-handed, categorical approach is deaf to the constitutional imperative to permit unfettered debate, even among high-school students, about the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use," Stevens wrote.

Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Stevens's opinion. Justice Stephen G. Breyer also dissented, writing separately that the court should not have decided the free-speech issue at all and ruled only that the principal was not individually liable for her decision.