STUDENT FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT COURT

Justices Debated the Case of a Student Who Was Suspended for a Banner
He Strung Up.

WASHINGTON - High school students may have a right to free speech, but
it does not go so far as to include the freedom to unfurl a banner
promoting "bong hits" at a school event, former U.S. Solicitor General
Kenneth Starr told the Supreme Court yesterday.

"This is disruptive of the educational mission and inconsistent with
the school's message" against using drugs, Starr said.

Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor and now dean of the Pepperdine
University Law School, represents a school principal from Juneau,
Alaska, who was sued for ripping down the banner and suspending the
student who unfurled it.

The case, Morse v. Frederick, forces the court to reconsider the line
between a student's right to free expression and a principal's
authority to limit what is said and done at school.

During yesterday's hourlong arguments, the justices struggled to draw
such a line. Most sounded as if they leaned in favor of the principal.
At the same time, they were wary of saying that officials have broad
power to punish students whenever they think a student's message is
offensive or inappropriate.

Several religious-rights groups filed briefs supporting the student's
free-speech right in this case. Their lawyers worry that school
officials might, for example, say it is inappropriate for a student to
wear a T-shirt praising Jesus Christ.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said it would be "disturbing" if
principals had such broad authority to pass judgment on what students
say at or near school. But Starr said the court could rule narrowly
and empower principals to forbid signs and banners promoting drugs,
alcohol or tobacco.

"This case is ultimately about drugs," Starr said.

The student's lawyer, Douglas K. Mertz of Juneau, insisted the
opposite was true: "This is a case about free speech. This is not a
case about drugs."

Mertz's client, Joseph Frederick, was an 18-year-old senior in 2002
when an Olympic-torch parade was scheduled to pass in front of his
high school. As the local TV cameras came by, he and a few fellow
students unfurled a 14-foot banner that said: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

The message seemed designed to provoke principal Deborah Morse, and it
succeeded in doing so. She tore it down and sent Frederick to the
office. She planned to suspend him for five days, but when he invoked
Thomas Jefferson and the First Amendment, she doubled the suspension
to 10 days.

Frederick later sued and alleged she had violated his constitutional
rights.

A federal judge rejected his claim, but the San Francisco-based U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled for the student and said
the principal could be forced to pay damages.

No damages have been set.

The outcome may turn on a ruling from the Vietnam War era. In 1969,
the Supreme Court upheld the right of high school students to wear
black armbands to protest the war. Young people do not "shed their
constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate," the court said then. But its opinion made clear
that principals and teachers need not tolerate "disruptive" speech or
protests.

During yesterday's argument, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said
the student's "bong hits" banner was disruptive.

"Can't a school say part of its mission is to discourage drug use?" he
asked.

Such a pro-drug message would be out of line in a classroom, said
Justice David H. Souter.

Mertz, however, insisted that Frederick's sign was not disruptive, and
that "a non-disruptive message has to be tolerated."

A ruling is expected by the end of June.