Eighty Years of Students’ Free Speech in Public Schools

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine L. Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Student Speech ◽  
The Past ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions ◽  
Special Rules

Free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy, and it is also a right that students exercise in public schools. Students’ rights have not always been as robust they are today, though. In fact, over the past century, the way in which we conceptualize students’ rights has changed dramatically. This chapter traces the development of the law in this area, analyzing the handful of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have established the special rules for deciding school speech cases and engaging the principles that have animated these decisions. The chapter also presents one way of understanding how these cases fit together, underscores questions about the current coherence of the doctrine, and engages the related—and increasingly important—issue of qualified immunity. Student speech cases are among the most commonly litigated issues under the First Amendment, and for many reasons, controversies about free speech present difficult questions.

Too Much Free Speech?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall P. Bezanson
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Full Measure ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Citizens United ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions

This book takes up an essential and timely inquiry into the Constitutional limits of the Supreme Court's power to create, interpret, and enforce one of the essential rights of American citizens. Analyzing contemporary Supreme Court decisions from the past fifteen years, the book argues that judicial interpretations have fundamentally and drastically expanded the meaning and understanding of “speech.” The book focuses on judgments such as the much-discussed Citizens United case, which granted the full measure of constitutional protection to speech by corporations, and the Doe vs. Reed case in Washington state, which recognized the signing of petitions and voting in elections as acts of free speech. In each case study, the book questions whether the meaning of speech has been expanded too far and critically assesses the Supreme Court's methodology in reaching and explaining its expansive conclusions.

The (Ambivalent) Tradition of Equality in America

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lehman Schlozman ◽  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Henry E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions ◽  
Political Voice

This chapter considers the place of equality, in all its complexity, in the American civic culture. It draws evidence from several sources: the debates occasioned by the drafting and ratification of the federal constitution, Supreme Court decisions, the fifty constitutions of the separate states, and public opinion as measured in surveys over the past several decades. In considering American understandings of equality, this chapter moves beyond an emphasis on equality of political voice to encompass the multiple aspects of the concept of equality. A brief look at these sources provides a context of normative debate in which to understand the empirical evidence that forms the bulk of this work and suggests that, while Americans are egalitarians, they are somewhat ambivalent egalitarians.

Under the Law: Every vote counts — and one vote can make an historic difference

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-67
Author(s):  
Julie Underwood
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Drug Testing ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions ◽  
The Law ◽  
K 12

Many of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions have been decided by just one vote, and these cases hold just as much weight as cases with a unanimous verdict. Julie Underwood provides an overview of some landmark 5-4 decisions with massive implications for K-12 schools in the areas of funding, censorship, desegregation, drug testing, and free speech.

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