STUDENT FREE-SPEECH RIGHTS LIMITED

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court tightened limits on student
speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his
14-foot-long "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as
advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court
in a 5-4 ruling.

Joseph Frederick unfurled his homemade sign on a winter morning in
2002, as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Alaska, en
route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Frederick said the banner was a nonsensical message that he first saw
on a snowboard. He intended the banner to proclaim his right to say
anything at all.

His principal, Deborah Morse, said the phrase was a pro-drug message
that had no place at a school-sanctioned event. Frederick denied that
he was advocating for drug use.

"The message on Frederick's banner is cryptic," Roberts said. "But
Principal Morse thought the banner would be interpreted by those
viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is
plainly a reasonable one."

Morse suspended the student, prompting a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Students in public schools don't have the same rights as adults, but
neither do they leave their constitutional protections at the
schoolhouse gate, as the court said in a landmark speech-rights
ruling from Vietnam era.

The court has limited what students can do in subsequent cases,
saying they may not be disruptive or lewd or interfere with a
school's basic educational mission.

Frederick, now 23, said he later had to drop out of college after his
father lost his job. The elder Frederick, who worked for the company
that insures the Juneau schools, was fired in connection with his
son's legal fight, the son said. A jury recently awarded Frank
Frederick $200,000 in a lawsuit he filed over his firing.

Joseph Frederick pleaded guilty in 2004 to a misdemeanor charge of
selling marijuana at Stephen F. Austin State University in
Nagodoches, Texas, according to court records.