Thread: Freedom of Speech in the USA

Justices to Hear Landmark Free-Speech Case

Defiant Message Spurs Most Significant Student 1st Amendment Test in Decades

By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page A03

The most important student free-speech conflict to reach the Supreme Court since the height of the Vietnam War hinges on a somewhat absurd, vaguely offensive, mostly nonsensical message of protest.
Bong Hits 4 Jesus.

That is the slogan that a defiant high school student named Joseph Frederick fashioned with a 14-foot piece of paper and a $3 roll of duct tape. His goal was partly to get on TV as the Olympic torch passed through his town of Juneau, Alaska, and mostly to get under the skin of his disciplinarian principal, Deborah Morse, with whom he had a running feud.

It worked, at least the irritating-the-principal part. Morse crossed Glacier Avenue to Frederick's position across from the school and confiscated the banner. She later suspended him for 10 days. Frederick, a high school rebel who at the time was fond of quoting Thoreau and Voltaire, said Morse tacked on the last five days when he paraphrased Thomas Jefferson's admonition that "speech limited is speech lost."

In the five years since, a classic conflict between a second-semester senior impatient to move on in the world and his frazzled principal trying to maintain order has become an only-in-America battle spawning numerous lawsuits, conflicting court rulings and changes that shook the lives of its participants.Now, a wide range of interested parties has assembled for what they see as an epic Supreme Court battle, which will be heard on Monday.

Entire & Link: washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

Quoting Thoreau and Voltaire? - can't have that!

I don't know which way I would go with this one without further evidence to consider.

The way I look at it is thus: should minors have the same exact rights as adults?

Wouldn't smoking/drinking by teenagers be a free speech issue as well?

If this were indeed a school sponsored event (school day, school hours, etc). then I think free speech can be limited. If the students were not in school outside of school hours and made the banner on their own free time and displayed it out of regular school hours then the school shouldn't regulate their speech.

Here's a good synopsis of the case:

http://www.cwsl.edu/content/gsmith/PetitionersBrief.pdf

Upon reading this one can see how the CoA narrowly reversed the ruling. Upon reading this I feel that the student in question was not deprived of inherent free speech rights. IMHO the school, principal, etc. are not at fault.

what's also interesting about this case is that the jesus freaks are going against the bush administration because they want to further blur the line between church and state.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/wa.../18scotus.html

Originally Posted by Milkman

But there is massive censorship in the US in many ways in the media, education system, etc.

Teachers unions are ruining education in the states.
Consistently vote out improvements such as merit pays etc.
In terms of censorship, it pales beside the outright propaganda that pretends to be 'news'...with rare exceptions.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Originally Posted by Milkman

But there is massive censorship in the US in many ways in the media, education system, etc.

Teachers unions are ruining education in the states.
Consistently vote out improvements such as merit pays etc.
In terms of censorship, it pales beside the outright propaganda that pretends to be 'news'...with rare exceptions.

Agree on your points, Boon Mee.

I haven't followed the teaching unions in a while, though.

The NEA (National Education Association) is pretty powerful.

As for censorship and propaganda, a lot of it comes down to journalists and anchormen and women internalizing propaganda.


The media is filtered mainly by the hiring process.

Sure a journalist for the New York Times can write what they want.

But if they didn't write what they write, they would have never been hired.


Another way to shape a story is assigned certain journalists to cover certain geographical areas and topics.

University president recommends firing controversial professor

POSTED: 9:49 p.m. EDT, May 29, 200


DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- The president of the University of Colorado has recommended that a professor who likened some September 11 victims to a Nazi should be fired, according to the professor and the school.

Ward Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, has denied the allegations and threatened a lawsuit if he is dismissed.
CU President Hank Brown made the recommendation in a 10-page letter sent to the chair of the committee that handles tenure issues. University spokeswoman Michele McKinney confirmed published reports about the recommendation Monday but said the school would not make the letter public.

The university's governing Board of Regents would have the final say on whether Churchill is fired or disciplined. It could be several weeks before the case ends up in its hands; the tenure panel must review it first.
Churchill touched off a firestorm with an essay likening some victims in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.

University officials concluded he could not be fired for his comments because they were protected by the First Amendment, but they launched an investigation into allegations that he fabricated or falsified his research and plagiarized.

....Churchill said Monday the university process was biased against him and that he believes he will get a fairer hearing in the courts.
"I've got more faith in almost anything (than in the university process)," he said. "A random group of homeless people under a bridge would be far more intellectually sound and principled than anything I've encountered at the university so far.

Link:University*president recommends firing controversial professor - CNN.com

the supreme court ruled against the 'bong hits 4 jesus' kid

(CBS/AP) The Supreme Court tightened limits on student speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his 14-foot-long "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court in a 5-4 ruling.

Joseph Frederick unfurled his homemade sign on a winter morning in 2002, as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake

Link: Student Loses "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Case, Justices Shoot Down Free Speech Claim; Also Weakens Campaign Finance Law - CBS News

In the U.S. you can be old enough to vote, get your ass shot off in Iraq, but not old enough to have a beer.

I guess in this case it was about promoting drug use and his age was irrelevant.

But "bong hits for Jesus" has a nice ring to it!

That ruling went as I expected it would.

You can burn the flag, urinate on the cross with Christ.

So, is this "hate crime?"

Article published Jul 31, 2007
Koran abuse draws hate-crime charge


July 31, 2007

By Audrey Hudson - A former Pace University student faces hate-crime charges for taking paperback copies of the Koran from the campus library on two occasions last fall and disposing of the Muslim holy book in toilets.

Stanislav Shmulevich, a Ukrainian immigrant, was arraigned Sunday in New York Criminal Court on two charges of criminal mischief in the fourth degree as a hate crime.

"The defendant, as a hate crime, intentionally damaged property of another while having no right to do so nor any reasonable grounds to believe that he had such a right," said the complaint filed by the New York County District Attorney's Office.

University officials filed a vandalism complaint with police after the first incident on Oct. 12, when "a copy of the Koran was found in a public toilet" at the Manhattan campus that "was covered in feces." A second copy of the Koran was found in a toilet Nov. 21.

When questioned by police, Mr. Shmulevich, 23, "admitted to committing said acts" and "that he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had had a recent disagreement," the criminal complaint said.

"We reported it initially as an act of vandalism, then the police hate-crime unit came over and decided to pursue it as a hate crime," said Chris Corey, Pace University spokesman, adding that he was "not at liberty" to discuss the investigation or how Mr. Shmulevich was implicated.

Mr. Shmulevich was arrested Friday after police found a surveillance photograph of him leaving the reading room where the books are kept, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

He was released from jail after a Sunday arraignment in New York City Criminal Court. Mr. Shmulevich has no criminal record, and works for a European banking firm. Straley M. Thorpe, Mr. Shmulevich's attorney, declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but said the law his client is charged with violating was challenged in past lawsuits on constitutional grounds.

"This may very well be protected speech," Mr. Thorpe said. "The statute is way too vague and broad and includes that of simply annoying people. But this is a free country, and you can't run the risk of annoying people and be charged with a felony."

Asked whether someone was ever charged with a hate crime over the Bible, Mr. Thorpe said "that would take a paralegal a couple of days to research, but this whole situation is fraught with this kind of question."

A search of Lexis/Nexis did not disclose any hate-crime prosecutions for destroying a Bible.

Winfield Myers, director of Campus Watch for the Middle East Forum, called the arrest a step toward the implementation of Islamic law in America.

"One could take a copy of the Bible, the Torah ... abuse it in any way one liked, and never face a criminal penalty for the act of desecration," Mr. Myers said. "Anything goes — unless the keepers of Islam are offended, and then the power of the state must be brought to bear and the offender punished in a criminal court of law."

"The Supreme Court has ruled that Americans can burn the flag and remain immune from prosecution because it is considered to be an act of protected speech. But turn your wrath on the Koran, and you risk arrest and criminal charges. This is Shariah, plain and simple," he said, referring to strict Islamic law.

Mr. Corey said university officials have not been contacted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations; however, the New York chapter released a statement commending the New York Police Department "for its appropriate handling of this case" and said the organization is working with the college's Muslim Student Association and the Association of Muslim American Lawyers "to promote tolerance on the Pace campus."

Link: http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/NATION/ 107310034/1002

If he had bought his own Koran and then shat upon it there would be no case.

Originally Posted by Milkman

You can burn the flag, urinate on the cross with Christ.

Technically at least. Try that in some of the Southern US States, see how far you get.

The 'Top Gear' crew were pelted with rocks for much less.

free speech is sort of null and void, because no matter how free your speech is, it isn't equal to everyone's. in other words, who will you hear more? some high school student in a small town, or president bush?

there's a good line in the movie, 'the insider'

free press?

larry tisch has a free press.

It's time to flush a few more korans down the loo.

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

It's time to flush a few more korans down the loo.

Need attention much, Earl?

he doesn't have the courage to go to iraq, so this is the type of thing he has to resort to.

Originally Posted by raycarey

he doesn't have the courage to go to iraq, so this is the type of thing he has to resort to.

I think you're on to something there. What is it with all these gung-ho types? Usually the first to call for the war to start but the last to volunteer their services.

Heck, even the majority of the so-called "Hawks" is Bush Jnr's team have a solid record of 'draft avoidance'. Guess it's a lot easier to talk tough about fighting when it's not you or your children that have to do it.

^
but their standard reply is, "i'm too old, i'm an alcoholic, blah, blah, blah..."

well, they don't need to join the military to go to iraq...

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there are over 1000 independent contractor jobs in iraq available in the above link.