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Tazsha Forby
On January 24, 2002, at a school-supervised event, Joseph Frederick held up a banner with the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". The principal, Deborah Morse, took away the banner and suspended Frederick for ten days. She justified her actions by citing the school's policy against the display of material that promotes the use of illegal drugs. The banner was a slang term referring to smoking marijuana.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari on Friday, December 1, 2006. The case was argued Monday, March 19, 2007. The majority acknowledged that the Constitution affords lesser protections to certain types of student speech at school or school-supervised events. Finding that the message Frederick displayed was by his own admission not political in nature, the Court said the phrase could be viewed as promoting illegal drug use.
The Court held that schools may "take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use" without fear of violating a student's First Amendment rights.
Joseph Frederick sued under 42 U.S.C. 1983, the federal civil rights statute, alleging a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The District Court found no constitutional violation and ruled in favor of the principal. The court held that even if there were a violation, the principal had qualified immunity from lawsuit.
Do you think this is fair?
During the period of this case, and still to this day, marijuana activists are still trying to get the drug legalized. Do you think Frederick got support from those activists? Was this a joke or was he trying to support marijuana? What do you think?
The school district agreed to settle out of court before the judges reached a decision. In November 2008, the district paid Frederick $45,000 to settle all remaining claims and agreed to hire a neutral constitutional law expert to lead a forum on student speech at Juneau-Douglas High School by the end of the school year.
The decision was made on Monday, June 25, 2007. Their decision wasn’t unanimous. The U.S. Supreme Court decision did not resolve all of the issues in the case. Frederick claimed his speech rights under the Constitution of Alaska were violated, and the issue was argued in front of the Alaska Court of Appeals in September 2008.
The District Court said that Frederick's action was not protected by the First Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed and held that Frederick's banner was constitutionally protected. The Ninth Circuit cited Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, which extended First Amendment protection to student speech except where the speech would cause a disturbance. Because Frederick was punished for his message rather than for any disturbance, the Circuit Court ruled, the punishment was unconstitutional. Furthermore, the principal had no qualified immunity, because any reasonable principal would have known that Morse's actions were unlawful.