First Amendment Commons^™

Beyond The Schoolhouse Gate: Should Schools Have The Authority To Punish Online Student Speech?, Brittany L. Kaspar

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This note analyzes the current circuit split over whether schools should have the authority to punish students for speech made on the Internet. Part I discusses the First Amendment generally and the four Supreme Court cases that have refined its application with respect to on-campus student speech. Part II presents the ensuing circuit split over the constitutionality of disciplining students for online, off-campus speech. Specifically, this section will explain both of the existing perspectives and why neither of the two is ideal. Part III attempts to devise a solution to the current divide by advocating a compromise position. In particular, …

Morse V. Frederick: Tinkering With School Speech: Can Five Years Of Inconsistent Interpretation Yield A Hybrid Content—Effects-Based Approach To School Speech As A Tool For The Prevention Of School Violence?, Ronald C. Schoedel Iii

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Returning To Hazelwood'S Core: A New Approach To Restrictions On School-Sponsored Speech, Emily Gold Waldman

Florida Law Review

This Article begins by discussing the Hazelwood decision in depth. It then discusses the various contexts in which courts have applied Hazelwood and the circuit split that has developed over how broadly Hazelwood should reach. Next, it describes the circuit split over whether Hazelwood permits viewpoint-based speech restrictions, highlighting the different speech contexts in which the circuits have reached divergent conclusions. The Article then argues that the overextension of Hazelwood links the two splits. This Part also discusses why Hazelwood is uniquely suited to the student speech context and why other doctrines—namely, the Pickering–Connick framework for teachers’ classroom …

Government's Denigration Of Religion: Is God The Victim Of Discrimination In Our Public Schools?, Michael R. O'Neill

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lee V. Weisman: Unanswered Prayers, Marilyn Perrin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: A Constitutional Victory For School Choice, Robert L. Mcfarland

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Action And The Supreme Court's Emerging Consensus On The Line Between Establishment And Private Religious Expression, Michael W. Mcconnell

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Disappearing Schoolhouse Gate: Applying Tinker In The Internet Age , John T. Ceglia

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liable For Your Lies: Misrepresentation Law As A Mechanism For Regulating Behavior On Social Networking Sites, Geelan Fahimy

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Fix: A Solution Or The Creation Of An Even Greater First Amendment Problem?, Lindsay Nash

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Playground Bully Has Gone Digital: The Dangers Of Cyberbullying, The First Amendment Implications, And The Necessary Responses, Jamie Wolf

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note argues that cyberbullying has evolved into a significant issue in the digital age, requiring a reevaluation of First Amendment protections and legislative responses. It critiques the current legal framework, particularly the Tinker v. Des Moines standard, for failing to adequately address off-campus speech that impacts the school environment. The author advocates for a balanced approach that protects victims while ensuring due process, emphasizing the need for comprehensive statutes and proactive measures by schools and parents.

Mitchell V. Helms: Giving The Cleveland School Voucher Program A Fighting Chance, Tyler Neal

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tattoos, Tickets, And Other Tawdry Behavior: How Universities Use Federal Law To Hide Their Scandals, Mary Margaret Penrose

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Students Be Disciplined For Off-Campus Cyberspeech?: The Reach Of The First Amendment In The Age Of Technology, Allan G. Osborne Jr., Charles J. Russo

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Tinkering" With The First Amendment's Protection Of Student Speech On The Internet, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 167 (2012), Steven M. Puiszis

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment, Public School Students, And The Need For Clear Limits On School Officials' Authority Over Off-Campus Student Speech, Rory A. Weeks

Georgia Law Review

When, if ever, can school officials punish a student's off-
campus speech? The Supreme Court's student-speech
jurisprudence does not provide a clear answer. But this
much is clear: School officials do not possess absolute
authority over students' on-campus speech. Public school
students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the
schoolhouse gate. And yet during school or school-related
activities, public school students do not have coequal First
Amendment rights with adults in other contexts. During
school or school-related activities, school officials may
proscribe otherwise-permitted speech in order to fulfill the
school's basic educational mission, which includes
instructingstudents in civility. …

Religion, School, And Judicial Decision Making: An Empirical Perspective, Michael Heise, Gregory C. Sisk

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We analyze various influences on judicial outcomes favoring religion in cases involving elementary and secondary schools and decided by lower federal courts. A focus on religion in the school context is warranted as the most difficult and penetrating questions about the proper relationship between Church and State have arisen with special frequency, controversy, and fervor in the often-charged atmosphere of education. Schools and the Religion Clauses collide persistently, and litigation frames many of these collisions. Also, the frequency and magnitude of these legal collisions increase as various policy initiatives increasingly seek to leverage private and religious schools in the service …

Context And Trivia, Samuel Brenner

Michigan Law Review

My academic mantra, writes Professor James C. Foster in the Introduction to BONG HiTS 4 JESUS: A Perfect Constitutional Storm in Alaska's Capital, which examines the history and development of the Supreme Court's decision in Morse v. Frederick, "[is] context, context, context" (p. 2). Foster, a political scientist at Oregon State University, argues that it is necessary to approach constitutional law "by situating the U.S. Supreme Court's ... doctrinal work within surrounding historical context, shorn of which doctrine is reduced to arid legal rules lacking meaning and significance" (p. 1). He seeks to do so in BONG HiTS 4 JESUS …

Stop With The Exceptions: A Narrow Interpretation Of Tinker For All Student Speech Claims, Matthew Sheffield

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the evolution of First Amendment rights for students in public schools, focusing on the landmark *Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District* decision and its subsequent interpretations. While Tinker established that students retain their constitutional rights in schools, later Supreme Court rulings, such as Fraser, Hazelwood, and Morse, have narrowed its application, balancing student free speech against school administrative concerns. The article argues that these post-Tinker decisions are consistent with the original intent of Tinker and advocate for a narrow application of its principles to maintain equilibrium between student rights and school authority.

Purpose And Effects: Viewpoint-Discriminatory Closure Of A Designated Public Forum, Kerry L. Monroe

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In early 2010, amidst a series of racially charged incidents on campus, the student government president at the University of California at San Diego revoked funding to all student media organizations in response to controversial speech on the student-run television station. It is well established that once the government has opened a forum, including a "metaphysical" forum constituted by government funding for private speech, it may not discriminate based on the viewpoints expressed within that forum. However, it has not been clearly established whether the government may close such a forum for a viewpoint-discriminatory purpose. This Note argues that courts …

Tinker At A Breaking Point: Why The Specter Of Cyberbullying Cannot Excuse Impermissible Public School Regulation Of Off-Campus Student Speech, Allison Belnap

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facebook Fatalities: Students, Social Networking, And The First Amendment, Thomas Wheeler

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teacher Facebook Speech: Protected Or Not?, Rachel A. Miller

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bullying In Public Schools: The Intersection Between The Student's Free Speech Rights And The School's Duty To Protect, Elizabeth M. Jaffe, Robert J. D'Agostino

Mercer Law Review

The 2009 case of eleven-year-old Jaheem Herrera's suicide in Georgia, which resulted after alleged repeated verbal bullying by his classmates, presents an interesting question regarding whether public schools must take action to prevent this type of behavior even if it does not disrupt the classroom. The issue to be addressed is not what speech schools can censor but whether schools must censor or prevent certain speech that has a harmful effect on the educational environment for a specific student or a specifically identifiable group of students.

If a public school student has a civil or liberty right to his education,' …

Tango Or More - From California's Lesson 9 To The Constitutionality Of A Gay-Friendly Curriculum In Public Elementary Schools, Amy Lai

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In August 2009, a group of parents in California filed a lawsuit, Balde v. Alameda Unified School District, in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda. They alleged that the Alameda Unified School District refused them the right to excuse their children from a new curriculum, Lesson 9, that would teach public elementary school children about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) families. The proposed curriculum included short sessions about GLBT people, incorporated into more general lessons about family and health, once a year from kindergarten through fifth grade. Kindergarteners would learn the harms of teasing, while fifth graders …

My Teacher Sux! [Censored]: Protecting Students' Right To Free Speech On The Internet, 28 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 385 (2011), Katherine Hokenson

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This comment will discusses the problem posed by student speech made on the Internet, how free speech issues are generally addressed by courts, the Supreme Court cases that have specifically addressed the First Amendment rights of students, and factors that courts dealing with student speech made on the Internet have attempted to use in their decisions. The comment will further look at how courts have analyzed online student speech cases in light of available Supreme Court precedent, and will propose that the Court adopt a hybrid of the Tinker test when addressing student speech made on the Internet, which will …

Equal Access Struggle: Counter-Military Recruitment On High School Campuses, 44 J. Marshall L. Rev. 459 (2011), Phillip Ruben Nava

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recognizing The Public Schools' Authority To Discipline Students' Off-Campus Cyberbullying Of Classmates, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

The American Medical Association, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified bullying in the public elementary and secondary schools as a "public health problem". This article explains the schools' comprehensive authority, consistent with the First Amendment, to impose discipline on cyberbullies, by suspension or expulsion if necessary. Ever since Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), the Supreme Court's First Amendment decisions have granted the schools authority to discipline student speech that causes, or reasonably threatens, (1) "substantial disruption of or material interference with school …

Employment, Sexual Orientation And Religious Beliefs: Do Religious Educational Institutions Have A Protected Right To Discriminate In The Selection And Discharge Of Employees?, Ralph D. Mawdsley

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The life blood of religious educational institutions is their doctrinal statements and codes of conduct that set standards for employee and student life. The purpose of this paper is to examine the freedom of religious educational institutions to make employment decisions related to three homosexuality related areas: sexual orientation, same-sex sexual activity outside marriage, and same-sex marriage. At the core of the discussion is the basic question whether religious educational institutions have a protected right to enforce doctrinal statements or codes of conduct addressing one or more of these areas.

This paper will examine legal issues related to the ability …

Anti-Cyber Bullying Statutes: Threat To Student Free Speech, John O. Hayward

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 17, 2006, Megan Meier, a thirteen-year-old girl in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, who had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and depression, committed suicide because of postings on MySpace, an Internet social networking site, saying she was a bad person whom everyone hated and the world would be better off without. As a result, the state revised its harassment and stalking statutes to prohibit using electronic means to knowingly "frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress to another person."' At the time of this writing, twenty-one states have passed similar legislation with others sure to follow. Many of these statutes …