CURRY CHANDLER
Staff Writer
School of Law Dean Ken Starr is among the litigators trying to resolve the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” saga after five years. Starr will be defending an Alaskan school board’s right to restrict free speech.
The Supreme Court will begin hearing the so-called “Bong Hits” case on March 19. The free-speech suit originated with an Alaskan high school student who was suspended for displaying a banner with the “bong hits” phrase while on a sidewalk opposite his school building. In question are the boundaries of free-speech privileges allowed to students.
At the opposing ends of the debate are the Juneau School Board and former student Joseph Frederick. Last year Starr and other members of the Los Angeles-based Kirkland & Ellis law firm took up the board’s case against the former student pro bono.
“Dean Starr is perhaps the best appellate advocate in the country and in coming to the law school he wanted to continue to represent clients in cases where he thought important interests were at stake,” law professor James McGoldrick said. “I think here his concern for school boards is an important issue consistent with the type of case he wants to be involved in.”
The proceedings follow a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision last March in favor of Frederick.
The dispute stems from a 2002 incident occurring during the passing of the Winter Olympics Torch through Juneau, Alaska. Frederick, then a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School, unfurled the 20-foot “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner while on a public sidewalk outside school grounds. He and other students had timed the opening of the banner to exploit television coverage of the torch passing.
When the school principal, Deborah Morse, saw the odd message, she asked Frederick and the other students to remove the sign. When they refused her request, Morse destroyed the banner. She then suspended Frederick for 10 days.
After the school board upheld his suspension, Frederick filed a lawsuit against arguing that the punishment infringed upon his right to freedom of speech. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2003. However, in March 2006 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Frederick’s free-speech rights had been violated.
The school board maintains that Frederick’s banner violated district rules against the promotion of the usage of illegal narcotics at school-sponsored events.
Frederick, who was 18-years-old when the banner incident occurred, denies the school district’s claim that his banner promoted anything illegal.
“Frederick says that the ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ language was designed to be meaningless and funny, in order to get on television, but Principal Morse said that ‘bong hits’ means puffs of marijuana and the words promote marijuana use,” according to official records of the Ninth Circuit court.
Supreme Court justices are also considering the question of whether Frederick was officially within the school’s jurisdiction at the time of the incident. The day of the banner incident, Frederick had not yet been within the school’s premises. Earlier that morning, his car was mired in snow, delaying his arrival at the campus.
Frederick said he went directly from his car to the sidewalk once he arrived at the school, never stepping within the institution’s bounds. School officials argue that administrators must be able to
Although the torch relay was an off-campus, privately-sponsored event, all the students had been let out of class so they could participate in the celebratory proceedings.
The court’s decision will likely depend on whether the banner disrupted the school’s educational process and whether Frederick was within school jurisdiction at the time of the incident.
A ruling is expected sometime in June.
03-01-2007
