Case Divides Bush, Religious Right

CHRISTIAN GROUPS DEFEND TEEN'S 'BONG HITS 4 JESUS' BANNER

WASHINGTON - A Supreme Court case to be argued today about the
free-speech rights of high school students has opened an unexpected
fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies among
conservative Christians.

On the surface, Joseph Frederick's dispute with his principal, Deborah
Morse, at the Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska five years ago
appeared to have little to do with religion.

As the Olympic torch was carried through the streets of Juneau on its
way to the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, Frederick and some
friends unfurled a 14-foot-long banner with the inscription: "Bong
Hits 4 Jesus."

Frederick later testified that he designed the banner "to be
meaningless and funny, in order to get on television." Morse
recognized "bong hits" as a slang reference to using marijuana. She
demanded that he take the banner down. When he refused, she tore it
down, ordered him to her office and gave him a 10-day suspension.

The Bush administration entered the case on the side of the principal
and the Juneau School Board.

While it is hardly surprising to find the American Civil Liberties
Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship on Frederick's
side, it is the array of briefs from organizations that litigate and
speak on behalf of generally conservative Christian groups that has
lifted Morse v. Frederick out of the realm of the ordinary.

The groups include the American Center for Law and Justice, founded by
the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Christian Legal Society, the Alliance
Defense Fund, the Rutherford Institute, which has participated in many
religion cases before the court, and Liberty Legal Institute, a
nonprofit law firm "dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment
rights and religious freedom." The institute, based in Plano, Texas,
told the justices in its brief that it was "gravely concerned that the
religious freedom of students in public schools will be damaged" if
the court rules for the school board.

Lawyers on Frederick's side offer a straightforward explanation for
the strange-bedfellows aspect of the case.

Douglas Laycock of the University of Michigan Law School, an authority
on constitutional issues involving religion who worked on Liberty
Legal Institute's brief, said that religiously observant students
often find the atmosphere in public school to be unwelcoming and "feel
themselves a dissident and excluded minority."

He added: "The status of being a dissident unites dissidents on either
side."