BONG HITS FOR FREE SPEECH

I'm glad you quoted Chief Justice John Roberts in your Supreme Court
editorial, even if I did have to muddle through your usual bashing of
The New York Times to get to it.

"When the First Amendment is at stake," Roberts wrote in the campaign
financing decision, "the tie goes to the speaker, not the censor."

If that's true, I can't wait to see how you'll defend the decision in
the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case. In that 5-4 ruling, Roberts sided with a
school principal in Alaska who suspended a student for exercising his
First Amendment rights by unfurling a banner with those words on it
across the street from the school. The court decided that "bong hits"
promoted the use of marijuana and, therefore, should be censored.

What's next? A school principal suspending the staff of a high school
newspaper for running an article on contraceptives? Will Roberts and
the court rule that such an article can be censored because it somehow
promotes sex among teens?

As the AP story points out, there have been previous rulings that have
chipped away at the free speech rights of high school students, but
this is the first time the court has ruled in favor of speech
censorship when the words were neither obscene nor
school-sponsored.

The erosion of free speech rights, even for high school students, is
sad enough. But to have the chief justice speaking out of both sides
of his mouth on the issue is truly alarming. Either he supports the
First Amendment or he doesn't. Free speech rights shouldn't apply only
to "adults."

I'm hoping that if the DN-R writes an editorial about the bong hits
ruling, that it comes out in clear support of the First Amendment with
no reservations.

Albert De Luca

Harrisonburg