The Supreme Court has just issued its decision in Morse v. Frederick, the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” student free speech case.  Thanks to I was the State for alerting everyone to this decision. 

Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Court, says that while students don’t leave their constitutional rights at the school house gate, they just can say any old darn thing they want (paraphrasing).  So they can have all the free speech they want, as long as it school officials approve of it.  And so the circuit decision (which upheld the Frederick’s right to say stuff that the principal didn’t like) was reversed.

Finally, a bright line test!  The “big picture” rationale related the termination of free speech with a message that was “reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.”  But if we focus in a little tighter, it becomes clear that the message sent by this decision relates to any speech which the school believes is contrary to the message it wants to promote.  Judge Robert’s attributes all evils of drug use to this banner, concluding that there is a compelling need to shut this kid up before every child in Juno, Alaska becomes a junkie. 

The Chief Justice concludes with the recognition of the tough job school principals have, and that the principal in this case had to make a snap decision.  This struck C.J Roberts as being overwhelmingly difficult. 

THIS JUST IN, via Abovethelaw from SCOTUSblog :

Morse is a very limited holding — essentially limited to the drug context. The Alito concurrence, joined by Kennedy, is controlling. He writes:

I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that (a) it goes no further than hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use and (b) it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as ‘the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.’”

According to Above the Law, this proves that Justice Alito is a closet liberal after all.  According to Scotusblog, Justice Alito has aligned himself with C.J Roberts to chip away incrementally at the Constitution.  Ironically, in another free speech case today involving Wisconsin Right to Life, the C.J. wrote that “the court should give the benefit of the doubt to speech, not censorship.”  Unless, of course, it’s not about right to life, but about bongs. 

Watch the video for a better understanding of the issue: