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Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Courts - SCOTUS denied cert in case re the distinction between off-campus and on-campus speech

"U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear High School Free Speech Case in Burlington" was the headline to this long story yesterday in the Hartford Courant, reported by Edmund H. Mahony. Some quotes:

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday ended former Connecticut high school student Avery Doninger's First Amendment fight when it let stand a prior ruling that school administrators acted reasonably when they disciplined her for using a vulgar term to criticize faculty.

The justices Monday morning declined to hear an appeal from Doninger, a junior at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington in 2007 when she used an off-campus computer to post an Internet comment that criticized school administrators in the mistaken belief that they were canceling a musical event called Jamfest. * * *

Some groups, including educational lawyers, had hoped the Supreme Court would use Doninger to re-examine the limits of student speech, on and off campus, in the age of instant, mass communication on the Internet.

The question in the Doninger case was the balance between a student's right to free expression and the disruptive effect of such speech upon the educational process. * * *

The U.S. Supreme Court last took up the issue of student speech in a 1969 Iowa case known as Tinker. In that case, students wore black armbands to school to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

In Tinker, the high court lifted discipline that school administrators in Iowa had imposed on the students there. The court said students have speech rights on campus as long as they don't disrupt the educational process.

Wired's David Kravets reports in a story headed "Supreme Court Plays Hooky, Leaves Student Online Free Speech Rights Murky." A quote:
The high court’s inaction Monday means the justices have never squarely addressed the parameters of off-campus, online student speech. So far, lower courts appear to be guided by a 1969 high court ruling saying student expression may not be suppressed unless school officials reasonably conclude that it will “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.”
The story links to a Feb. 4, 2010 Wired story headed "Rulings Leave Online Student Speech Rights Unresolved." For background, start with this ILB entry from August 21, 2011.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 2, 2011 09:48 AM
Posted to Courts in general