March 4 - oral arguments
- Freedom of speech is implicated; they gave her a punishment for speaking out on what
she believed
- Political speech is one of the most valuable kinds of speeches
Tinker vs. Des Moines (1969)
- Students planned to protest the Viet war
- Wore black armbands with a peace sign on them (symbolic speech)
- Principal found out and threatened to suspend students who refused to take the band off
- Parents sued the school and the Supreme Court ruled in the student's favor
- Because it was silent and didn't interrupt learning
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
- School newspaper was going to publish articles about teen pregnancy and divorce
- Article included a story about a student pregnancy, a father being unfaithful/divorce
- Principal thought it was inappropriate and pulled the article
- COURT “Student rights and rights of adults are not the same”
- Can’t publish things if they negatively impact students (both articles were censored)
Morse vs, Frederick (2007)
- Students had an event off campus that had a banner that said “Bong hits for Jesus”
- Principal said it violated school policy to encourage drug usage
- Morse was suspended for not taking the banner down
- SC ruled in the schools favor saying he could be suspended
BL vs MASD
- Brandy tried out for the cheer team and got put on jv
- She didn't like it so she and her friends posted a photo on sc saying bad things about the
school and coaches
- She was kicked off the team
- Supreme Court said bc of the 1 amendment she was allowed to post whatever she
wanted
- She was off campus at the tim
February 25 - court system
Two types of courts
- State courts: est by the laws of each state, broad jurisdiction, criminal matters to family
law disputes
- Federal courts: est under the US constitution, has a narrower jurisdiction, bankruptcy to
violation of the US constitution
Two types of court cases
- Civil cases: civil law (all other disputes; suing, eviction, divorce, custody, etc), not
arrested and sued by another priv party, preponderance of evidence, fine or injunction,
judge or jury
- Criminal case: criminal law (when you commit a crime), arrested and charged by gov,
gov vs defendant, “beyond a reasonable doubt”, jail time, public defender, guaranteed
jury
- Many steps to get your case to be seen by the Supreme Court (they have the right to
deny)
Juvenile court system
- 10-18
- Goal isn’t to lock you up for the rest of your life, just to make you serve some time for the
crime
- No jury trial
- Offenses are considered delinquent acts and not criminal
February 18 - classification in race, gender, etc
- 14th amendment = equal protections
- Strict scrutiny: process of reviewing a law that categorizes people (highest level of
constitutional protection, Kiss of death)
- Intermediate scrutiny: must be genuine, important, and sustainable reason
- Rational basis review: Needs to be legitimate, rationally related
Economic - SA v Rod
- Court had to decide if it was illegal for the state to fund schools
- Parents thought that students in the richer districts getting more money was
discriminatory
-
Gender- biased
- Immediate scrutiny (gov must show important interest & sustainably related to that
interest)
- US v Va - VMI couldn't meet intermediate scrutiny test for an all male college
- Gender: title 9 - Boys & girls in any ed program or activity in all schools that receive
federal funding must receive equal treatment
Citizenship based
- Resident aliens - heightened scrutiny
- Undocumented aliens - only have rational basis
- Children under UA have the right to go to public school; they have no control over their
parent's actions
Sexual orientation
- Homosexuals never get a higher level of scrutiny; you can't have your law targeting
homosexuals based on prejudice or animosity
- Priv orgs have the right to exclude homosexuals
- Same sex marriage is held under a tower of privacy
- Important now because Ro v wade was overturned
Boy Scouts of A v Dale
- BS found out Dale was gay and a gay rights activist
- Dale sued but BS is a private org
- SC said since it was a private org they could basically do what they want
February 11 - Equal Protection Against Race Discrimination
- 14th amendment = equal protection clauses; everyone is treated equally
- After Civil War the 14th amendment was added in order to clamp down on racism in
N&S
- Prohibits the use to separate, demean, stigmatize, or disadvantage ppl
- States cant implement laws to discriminate
BOE v edu of Topeka
- 1896 plessy v ferguson est separate but equal
- lawsuit was filed when his daughter was discriminated against
- later on court overturned separate but equal; segregation in schools was inherently
unequal
- there was widespread resistance
- aftermath: gov of Arkansas refused to integrate
Cooper v Aaron
- School board of Arkansas School filed a suit to desegregate schools
- Integrated schools = no schools in Arkansas
Community Schools v Seattle SD
- Allowed students to apply to any HS in the district
- District used system of tiebreakers to decide who would be admitted
- Race was considered as a factor
- SC said race alone can't be a factor
Petitioners v Bollinger
- UM considers race in admission
- Both (white men) were told they were qualified but were denied admission
- Sued the school, arguing that the admissions procedure was discriminatory
- Yes it violated the equal protection clause
- Has to be a holistic consideration
-
Students v Harvard
- Decided that schools can't use race as a factor in college admissions
- Now uni considers how applicants discusses how race has impacted their life in
admission essay
\February 4 - 5th & 14th Amendment: Due process
- must follow certain procedures before they may deprive a person of a protected life,
liberty, or property interest
- Due process in school eg Conferences
Nj vs TLO (1985)
- Hs student who got caught smoking in school
- She denies it but principal finds cigs, drugs, and finds out she was selling drugs
- Cops got called and TLO said her rights were violated
- If ever searched there must be reasonable suspicion
SUSD v Redding
- Kids were passing out pills and VP heard about it
- Some girl was searched and strip searched bc another student said she was the one
selling the pills
- SC ruled that the school violated her First Amendment
- VP didn't have enough good cause/reasonable suspicion
BOE ISD v Earls
- Had to take drug test in order to participate in extracurricular activities
- Parents challenged teh policy violated the Fourth Amendment
- SC said this wasn't a violation; they were given a choice
January 28 - First Amendment: Freedom of Religion
- Grievances
Religion
Assembly
Press
Exercise
Speech
- Importance - Pilgrims weren’t allowed to practice their own religion in Europe, they had
to follow the King's religion ( religion was connected to gov)
- Free exercise - Ppl can practice any religion they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone
- Over 4,000 religions in Philly
Lemon v. Kurtzman
- Providing state funding for private religious schools violates the Establishment Clause of
the First Amendment
Engle vs Vitale
- Nondenominational prayer violates the establishment of religion
- It violates because the gov can't draft a prayer to anyone who doesn't follow the religion
Lee vs Weisman
- Rabbi came in to speak at a grad ceremony at a public school
- This violates because you can't force religion on someone
SFISD vs DOE
- Student leads prayer which violates the test. clauses
- Taken place at a gov sponsored or school-related event
Wisconsin v. Yoder
- Does a policy forcing children under 16 to go to school infringe on the free exchange of
the Amish? They only believe in sending kids to school until the 8th-grade level
- Yes they have the right to exercise their religion however they please
- Court found that secondary school wouldn't produce the benefits alluded to in the law
Zelman vs Simmons-Harris
- Ohio ed program is under state control for poor students who are failing school in
Cleveland
- Tuition vouchers were given to go to a private religious school or public school
- Doesn't violate the est clauses because they were given a choice
-
January 14 - First Amendment: Freedom of the press
- Congress shall make no laws prohibiting people from using freedom of speech
- (SPEECH) Protects hate speech, KKK, awful things, etc but also can be used for good
reasons
- Grievances
Religion
Assembly
Press
Exercise
Speech
Benefits for students
- Enrichment of student journalism
- Promotes communication of ideas
- Encourages responsibilities
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
- School newspaper was going to publish articles about teen pregnancy and divorce
- Article included a story about a student pregnancy, a father being unfaithful/divorce
- Principal pulled the article
- COURT “Student rights and rights of adults are not the same”
- Can’t publish things if they negatively impact students (both articles were censored)
Killion v. Franklin Regional School District
- Z.P was refused a school parking space
- Created a vulgar top 10 list of why he thought the athletic director was rude, friends,
friends printed it and brought it to school
- He was suspended I think
- His speech was protected; didn't disrupt the school, wrote it outside of school
J.S vs Bethlehem Area School District
- Student created a website (home, outside of school) that made rude comments about
principal and algebra teacher
- Talked about different ways he wanted to kill them
- Telling people to pay him if they wanted him to hire a hitman
- Ppl at school found out about it and it caused a disruption
- Students brought the speech to campus so it's not protected
December 10 - Freedom of speech in school
First Amendment
- freedom of speech (has limitations)
- freely practicing religion
- freedom of the press (has limitations)
- the right to protest as long as it's peaceful
- report to the gov about any issues they have
- 6 major rights
Grievances
Religion
Assembly
Press
Exercise
Speech
Speech
- Allowed: spoken words, expressive conduct, refusal to speak
- Limits: “fighting words”, inciting violence/theft, fraud, perjury, threatening president,
Obscenity, FCC (trademark)
West Virginia state BOE vs. Barnette (1943)
- Jehovah's witness was expelled and suspended for not wanting to salute the flag
- Jehovah's witness thought it was a sin to support the flag
- Protected speech because it was protected under freedom of religion
Tinker vs. Des Moines school district (1969)
- Students planned to protest the Viet war
- Wore black armbands with a peace sign on them (symbolic speech)
- Principal found out and threatened to suspend students who refused to take the band off
- Parents sued the school and the Supreme Court ruled in the student's favor
- Because it was silent and didn't interrupt learning
Melton vs. Young (1972, South)
- Melton wore a confederate flag to school which resulted in suspension
- SC didn’t rule in his favor
- Caused issues within the class bc it was offensive and racist
Bethel school districts (1986)
- Used graphic speech when nominating a fellow student for elective office and was
suspended
- SC didn’t rule in his favor
- Speech wasn't protected in the First Amendment
- Caused disruption within the class
- Was no educational message
Morse vs, Frederick (2007)
- Students had an event off campus that had a banner that said “Bong hits for Jesus”
- Principal said it violated school policy to encourage drug usage
- Morse was suspended for not taking the banner down
- SC ruled in the schools favor saying he could be suspended
December 3 - How constitutional laws affect students
- Constitution (supreme law of US)
- Law of land
- establishes gov structure
- 7 articles lay out the structure, amendments allow laws to change over time
- “We the people” declares its own power (popular sovereignty)
- Bill of rights
- first 10 amendments of the constitution
- Statutes (Laws or rules passed by a legislature)
- Case laws (court opinions that interpret statutes and Constitution)
- 3 Branches of Gov
- Executive (presidents), Legislative (congress), Judicial (supreme court)
- SC interpreting the constitution
- text itself
- history of a nation
- intent of farmer
- ruling from similar cases
- loves separation of powers
