FREE EXPRESSION TAKES A HOLIDAY

Q. What do the ACLU, Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and
Justice and anti-drug advocates have in common?

A. They all opposed the Bush administration and lawyer Ken Starr in
the recent Supreme Court case of Morse v. Frederick.

If you know anything at all about this case, that may seem a little
weird but it's certainly not the weirdest thing that Pat Robertson has
ever done.

Last week the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision in favor of the
defendant, the Juneau, Alaska, school board in Morse v. Frederick.
Court experts have suggested that it might be the most important
student free speech case to be decided by the court in thirty years.

The case was the result of the actions of Joseph Frederick, an
18-year-old senior at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska.
During a parade celebrating the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics,
Joseph Frederick and his friends held a 14-foot-long banner on a
public sidewalk across the street from the school. Its message read
"Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

It should be noted that several media sources have been kind enough to
remind readers that a "bong" is a water pipe sometimes used to smoke
marijuana. That's like saying a coffee pot is sometimes used to make
coffee.

Frederick was ordered to remove the sign, which was interpreted by his
principal as promoting drug use. He refused to comply and received a
10-day suspension from school, a fairly serious penalty for a high
school senior.

Ken Starr, representing the Juneau school board, argued that the sign
was clearly advocating drug use. Traditionally, courts have sided with
school officials when student speech violates school polices or is
takes place on school property.

But as Robertson and others who supported Mr. Frederick's suit pointed
out, if one individual's right to free expression is not secure,
nobody's right to free expression is secure. While I don't find myself
in agreement with Mr. Robertson very often, in this case, we're on the
same page.

Like most Americans, I really like free speech and expression.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this column right now and you
wouldn't have read this far. Whenever I have the opportunity to talk
about the constitution with my students, I like to point out that one
of its greatest features is protecting our freedom of bad taste. I
usually tell them that it protects them from having to listen to my
Bruce Springsteen anthology and protects me from having to listen to
50 Cent.

Personally, I consider a sign that says "Bong Hits 4 (insert sacred
name here)" to be in extremely bad taste but I certainly think it
celebrates free expression. And I don't have to look at it if I don't
want to and like many satirical comments the content is so
over-the-top that no reasonable person could take it seriously.

It's possible that Joseph Frederick may believe that many of the
things I do as I exercise my right to free expression (such as going
to church three times a week) are a little over the top as well. This
is probably why Christian groups, teachers and even 50 Cent should
take an interest in cases like this.

But the real issue in Morse v. Frederick was how far a school can go
in restricting free expression for the purposes of educating or
maintaining discipline. That's always been a balancing act but I think
we're all better served when courts err on the side of expression.

In this case, the court ruled that it was better to enforce school
anti-drug policies by expanding the school's power of in loco parentis
to a legal adult who was attending and public event away from school
property. It really doesn't make sense to me.

That's bad news because it seems to signal that the court is prepared
to defer to the power of the state to determine what is in good or
taste and when somebody has stepped over the line.

I've had the opportunity to read and see many things in the course of
my life that I find distasteful. On a few occasions, they have changed
the way I think about ideas and viewpoints that are alien to me.

I've also developed a rather un-original way of dealing with the ideas
and images that I find distasteful and still don't like - I either
turn the page or change the channel.

It seems to work most of the time.