Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Bong Hits 4 Jesus is going to the Supreme Court!

Basically, a bunch of people showed up at a rally in Juneau, Alaska, to watch the Olympic torch pass by, and one of them held up a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner. His name was Joseph Frederick and he was a student at Juneau-Douglas High School. The school had let him out early to go see the torch, so they tried to discipline him on the grounds that this was a school-sponsored event. He fought and won in court, and he won the appeal in federal court too. Now the school and the state have taken the matter to the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case.

I think the school should have lost on the grounds that he wasn’t at school. This wasn’t a school-run event, and it wasn’t a field trip.

However, the ruling being appealed is based on broad First Amendment principles. The school can tell a student not to speak or not to hold up a banner if such things might be disruptive. But when the school allows a student to visit a rally where people are holding banners, the school doesn’t get to suppress a student’s speech merely because the school disagrees with it.

That makes sense to me, and I think it will make sense to the Supreme Court. After all, this seems to be settled law ever since the Tinker decision that allowed students to wear black armbands. Which makes me worry, because the Ninth Circuit upheld the student’s rights based on Tinker, so why is the Supreme Court agreeing to hear it?

It’s probably because of some other issues related to the student’s counter-suit against the school, but I worry whenever the Supremes go sniffing around the First Amendment.