Arguing in Cyberspace: Supreme Court Takes Two Cases Regarding Social Media Posts on Government Websites
Does blocking citizen comments on a government official’s social media page violate the First Amendment?
A Tale of Two Football Fields: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
Why Kennedy v. Bremerton School District was Not the Case that Some Judges Thought It Was
A Tale of Two Football Fields
Why Kennedy v. Bremerton School District was Not the Case that Some Judges Thought It Was.
Does Mahanoy apply at the College Level?
Mahanoy is just the latest in the courts’ awkward efforts to make K-12 student free speech cases apply to older, more mature students…but this time, it may make more sense.
Fly Your Flag Proudly: Religious Displays on Public Property
So I missed this last week, but the Supreme Court has decided to hear Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a case brought by a Christian group that was denied permission by the City of Boston to fly its flag, which features a Latin Cross, on a flagpole at Boston City Hall. According to the lawsuit, the City encourages private groups to fly their flags on the city flagpole, and over the course of twelve years had allowed over 280 groups to do so, including Juneteenth and LGBTQ-related flags. But the group claims they were denied permission solely because their flag was religious.
B.L.’s discipline is overturned — but who won the case?
Yesterday the Supreme Court issued its decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. by and through Levy, the case involving a tenth-grade student who, disappointed that she did not make the varsity cheerleading squad, went home and posted a picture of herself on Snapchat with her middle finger raised, with the caption “Fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.” The Supreme Court agreed with the Third Circuit that removing the student from the JV cheer squad for her sophomore year violated her First Amendment rights. However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the Third Circuit – or, at least, the two judges in the majority – as to why it violated her First Amendment rights.
This is important, because while the Supreme Court’s decision was obviously a loss for the Mahanoy Area School District, I would go so far as…