twitter's Journal: Split Supreme Court Sets back Student Free Speech

The BBC and others are reporting the outcome of the infamous "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case. By a 5-4 vote, students lose the ability to advocate drug use at anything that can be considered a school event. Some historical perspective is provided.

Mr Frederick's lawyer, Douglas Mertz, argued that the court should stand by its 1969 ruling that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate". In that case, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court decided in favour of students who wanted to wear black armbands in class to protest against the war.

But the court ruled in the late 1980s that a student did not have the right to give a sexually-suggestive speech at a school assembly and that school newspapers could be censored.

So, you can advocate things that violate school policy, but not at school or anywhere students gather. Fredrick was standing across the street from an informal school event.