Pico v. Board of Education

• Banning certain books because of immoral factors goes against the first amendment; freedoms of speech and press.
• The Majority believed every American has the right to self expression through what ever they deem necessary, including books.
• Also, every American has the right to recieve different information and ideas, even if it is offensive to others.

• The Minority believed that the world is changing, so laws should change along with it, including the 1st Amendment in order to restrict offensive material.
• They believed in censorship, to keep students safe from bad influences. Certain books have adult content that should be reserved for more mature readers on their own time, not school time.

The Majority Opinion: 5 Votes

The Minority Opinion: 4 Votes

Justice William J. Brennan

Author:

Cheif Justice Warren E. Burger

Our Opinion

• We agree with the Majority decision. Our Constitution is presiding over us for a reason, and we should not ignore the rights it provides for us.

• If schools were to take away any book they felt offended others, there wouldnt be anny books left in our library because everybody has different views and get offended by different things.

• The first Amendment states that we have the freedom of religion, speech, press, assmbly, and petitioning. If we all have those freedoms, we have the right to distribute what it is we create with these rights (books) and the right to recieve them.

Plantiff:

Steven Pico & other students who went to the Island Trees School District.

Defendant:

The Island Trees Board of Edcation

Works Cited

http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/resources/handout1a.aspx?id=13965

http://www.firstamendmesntschools.org/freedoms/case.aspx?id=41

1982

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/pico.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan

• During this time period, Ronald Reagan was in office as president and he wanted "to restore the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism."

• This case reflected the society at the time because Reagan was trying to reform society and the debate of allowing kids the ability to read books with inappro[priate material came about.

Question: "Should the Board of Education be able to take books out of the School Library?"

• Many of our fellow students of Holly Highschool agreed with the majority decision, saying that it is against our rights to have any type of ban against books.
• Allison Rager sided for the dissension, stating that certain books can be banned, based on the reasoning for such restriction.
• However, Kourtney Cooper concurred with both sides, saying that books could be banned if uneducational, but if it is just a moral issue that they can only check out those books with parental consent.

• The decision made then would probably be the same now because many people still agree that the rights that we had then are the same as today, so the same restrictions would apply. If anything, society would be more accepting toward inappropriate materials because values have changed.

Pico v. Board of Education is about the ban of books that contain adult content from school libraries. It relates to the 1st amendment because it gives the freedom of speech and press; which is being exercised when we write and read books that we choose, whether it's against other's views or not. Also, it gives us the freedom to the sharing of ideas, which is restricted when books are banned.

3. US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

2. US District Court, E.D. New York

4. The US Supreme Court

1.The Problem

Our Case & The 1st Amendment

• The students explained that the discarding of books was not because of lack of educational value, but because a few passages offended some of the board members' political and moral tastes. The US District Court favored with the Board, stating that the infringement of certain morals made the books uneducational.

• The Court of Appeals then reversed the District Court's judgement holding in favor of the students. It stated that the First Amendment gives the right of freedom of speech and of presss; which embraces the right to distribute and recieve other's ideas and writings, offensive or not.

• The US Supreme Court stated that the Board's actions could only be unconstitutional if their intentions were to get rid of the books to remove certain ideals from the students' vicinity. It is constitutional if the Board's intetions were simply to rid of them based on "educational suitability". This was not the case, however, and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students.

• In New York, the president of the Board of Education of the Island Trees Union, Richard Ahrens, and other Board members petitioned against the Island Trees Highschool about the books inhabited in its library. They characterized the books as "improper fare for school students" and "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti- Semitic, and just plain filthy."

• The Board rejected their commitee and soon Richard Pico and many other Island Trees students began to react to the Board's actions, claiming that the members had breached on their rights under the first amendment because the removal of books hinders their ability of self-expression and discussion, and the ability to debate and share information or ideas.

• The Board then appointed a commitee to read all of the nine books to take into account their "educational suitability" and "appropriateness to age". The conclusion was that only two of them be removed, one be available with parental consent, and the rest be untouched.

Argued:

Decided:

Journey to the US Supreme Court