Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Constitutional Issues Bong Hits 4 Jesus Supreme Court Ruling 5-4

Well it aint haba corpse, but I guess even the Supremes can have a little fun, when they are not busy screwing us 5-4. You are going to see a lot of that number 5-4, for a while...

TAT

Bong Hits 4 Jesus Supreme Court Ruling

"Morse v. Frederick: Free Speech or Half-Baked Lawsuit?"

This morning The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that schools have the right to limit a student's speech when it advocates criminal activity.

The case of Morse v. Frederick, which some legal experts have called the most important First Amendment test since Vietnam, came about after high school student Joseph Frederick was suspended for unfurling a 14-foot sign reading, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" during a class field trip in 2002.


Bong Hit for Jesus

Alrightythen! The foot is firmly in the door! Which group of citizens should loose their Right to Free Speech next? Any volunteers? No? Ok then. They will choose the next group for us!!!

...just another brick in the wall.

Three Bad Ruling

The Supreme Court hit the trifecta yesterday: Three cases involving the First Amendment. Three dismaying decisions by Chief Justice John Roberts’s new conservative majority.

Chief Justice Roberts and the four others in his ascendant bloc used the next-to-last decision day of this term to reopen the political system to a new flood of special-interest money, to weaken protection of student expression and to make it harder for citizens to challenge government violations of the separation of church and state.

In the process, the reconfigured court extended its noxious habit of casting aside precedents without acknowledging it — insincere judicial modesty scored by Justice Antonin Scalia in a concurring opinion.

Nor did the court’s concern for free speech extend to actually allowing free speech in the oddball case of an Alaska student who was suspended from high school in 2002 after he unfurled a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” while the Olympic torch passed.

The ruling by Chief Justice Roberts said public officials did not violate the student’s rights by punishing him for words that promote a drug message at an off-campus event. This oblique reference to drugs hardly justifies such mangling of sound precedent and the First Amendment.

The "right" to free speech must be moderated by the necessity of protecting the good name of the Almighty. Proclaiming something as blatantly injurious to not only the morality of this fair country but the Almighty himself as "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" was never intended to be "protected speech" by the Founders. Obviously, one cannot be allowed, through word or deed, to harm the Almighty in any conceivable manner.

I have to agree with Justice Kennedy (?I think it was him?) that dissented, and basically said no one with an ounce of brains would think that sign was really advocating folks to do drugs. I guess that gives us the measure of 5 people at least.....

Even if it was about drugs, why does the reach of the school extend to off campus speech by a student? This ruling would hold the student could be suspended for a conversation with his friends in which he said he thought smoking pot was ok.

This is the very worst speech case in quite a while, and that is saying something.

This 5-4 is already getting pretty tedious and worrisome as a bad marker for things to come...

Soon expect brush cuts and uniforms in public school.

Ps Hippie Phil, get a retroactive haircut on that insurgent photo, cause you are already on double secret probation!

TAT

It is who I am, Tat, more than any other photo.

Another reason to keep my kids out of public schools and at home, learning to be philosophical anarchists and members of good standing in the human race. I like to stay below the bureaucratic radar as much as possible. I have, however, been known to run afoul of the authorities over little things like first amendment from time to time.