HIGH COURT HEARS FREE SPEECH CASE

Student Suspended Over 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Banner Says Rights Were Violated

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices on Monday debated whether a high
school principal violated the Constitution when she suspended a senior
for unfurling a banner proclaiming "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" while he was
off school grounds.

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In this major First Amendment case - and the first in two decades
involving the free speech rights of students - the justices struggled
over how much leeway to give school administrators in censoring pupils.

Justice Stephen Breyer worried that ruling for the senior would prompt
a flurry of students "testing limits all over the place."

On the other hand, Breyer fretted that if the court sided with the
principal, it could "really limit people's rights to free speech."

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said he was concerned that a ruling for
the student, Joseph Frederick, would cause teachers "to fear that they
are going to pay out of their own pocket" whenever they make snap
decisions about the free speech rights of students.

The case was triggered in January 2002, when a Juneau, Alaska, high
school let some students out early to watch as the Olympic Torch Relay
passed through the city. Frederick, then 18 years old and a high
school senior, missed school in the morning but showed up at the relay
in the afternoon.

Across the street from his high school, as television cameras were
about to pass by, Frederick opened the 14-foot banner that made a
slang reference to smoking marijuana.

Principal Deborah Morse crossed the street and ordered Frederick to
take down the sign. She seized it and, later, suspended Frederick for
10 days.

Frederick sued Morse in federal court. A trial judge sided with Morse,
concluding that the Olympic relay was effectively a school-sponsored
event and the principal had a right to regulate Frederick's "plainly
offensive" speech.

On appeal, Frederick won a 3-0 reversal from a panel of the U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit last year. The panel said
Morse should not have taken Frederick's sign and suspended him because
it was not likely there would be a "substantial disruption."

The Supreme Court has ruled that free speech rights can be curtailed
to avoid or stop a disruption.

Morse's attorney, Kenneth Starr, argued that the principal had a right
to step in and stop a pro-drug message that ran counter to the
school's policies.

"This case is ultimately about drugs," Starr told the justices.
"Illegal drugs and glorification of the drug culture are profoundly
serious problems."

Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, who argued on behalf of the
Bush administration in support of Morse, asked the justices to "give
deference to the judgments of educators."

The Constitution does not force public school officials "to stand
aside and permit" messages that are inconsistent with what they are
trying to teach students, Kneedler said.

Frederick's lawyer, Douglas Mertz, said schools run afoul of the
Constitution when they restrict speech simply because it presents "a
contrary viewpoint."

Mertz said that because Frederick has not reported to school in the
morning and was across the street during the event, he was not subject
to the school's authority. There is a difference between regulating
speech "in the classroom" and doing so "in the lunchroom, outside in
recess, across the street," when it is "essentially an open forum,"
Mertz said.