PROTECT FIRST AMENDMENT OUTSIDE SCHOOLHOUSE GATE

The message might have been "Guns Save Lives." Or it might have been
"Jesus Saves." Instead, when the Olympic torch was making its
procession through Juneau, Alaska, in 2002, Joseph Frederick held a
banner that said something else.

Frederick says it was a publicity stunt. A high school student at the
time, Frederick and some classmates were given permission to leave
class and observe the procession. With the cameras rolling, he
unfurled his "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

What exactly that means is anyone's guess. But his principal took the
banner away, suspending Frederick for 10 days for displaying a
message ostensibly inconsistent with the school's anti-drug policy.
Frederick filed suit, claiming the school district, which upheld the
suspension, had abridged his First Amendment rights.

Now the issue is before the Supreme Court. And an odd alliance is
supporting Frederick -- secular liberal groups such as the ACLU as
well as Christian conservative groups like the American Center for
Law and Justice. It's not difficult to understand why.

In its famous Tinker decision of 1969, the Supreme Court held that
students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of
speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." In this case,
Frederick was beyond the schoolhouse gate. But Deputy Solicitor
General Edwin Kneedler argued on behalf of the government that a
school does not have to tolerate a message that is "inconsistent"
with its educational mission.

The circumstances of this incident and the vagueness of that argument
could create a broad definition of intolerable speech. Defending gun
ownership might be construed to be inconsistent. So might advocating
religious beliefs.

You don't have to approve of Frederick's message to recognize the
implications of this case go far beyond a sophomoric prank. The high
court should uphold the Tinker precedent rather than expand the power
of the government to restrict free speech.