The controversial Supreme Court case of Morse v. Frederick—infamous for its focus on a banner with the message “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS”—was decided by a 5-4 ruling June 25. The Court ruled in favor of school administrators who suspended a student for refusing to take down the banner. Local free speech advocacy groups, however, are now having their say on the Court’s ruling.
The Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal organization focused on the defense of civil rights, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression both filed amicus briefs in support of the Alaskan high school student who claimed his First Amendment rights were violated.
“It may be that the principal perceived [the banner] as drug related or drug advocacy, but it is far from obvious,” says Robert O’Neil, director of the TJ Center. “We tried to stress…how ambiguous this particular message is.”
According to John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, cases such as this are more sociological in nature than constitutional. “Anybody with a clear-thinking, civil liberties mindset is going to say that’s free speech,” says Whitehead. “He was across the street, and he was goofing off. It’s the kind of stuff I did as a kid.”
Both O’Neil and Whitehead note the precedent established by the 1968 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, which ruled in favor of two students who wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War, disregarding dress code. According to O’Neil, certain members of the Court would have turned to Tinker precedent had Morse not involved the perceived advocacy of drugs.
Whitehead says Court decisions relating to illegal drugs have tended to elicit more restrictive rulings in recent years. He compares the nature of this decision to that of a former Albemarle County Schools policy which held that student athletes had to sign a pledge that said they would not use drugs or alcohol, a policy that the Rutherford Institute helped change.
“That’s the problem, schools reaching beyond the scope of their authority,” says Whitehead. “It’s unhealthy.”
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