Nurre v. Whitehead Oral Argument
Channel: LawResourceOrg
Date: 08/04/2011

Nurre v. Whitehead Oral Argument - U.S. Court of Appeals - 283553-1-DVD - 2009-01-22 - U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.  Oral arguments were heard in the Nurre v. Whitehead, a case challenging a school's decision to forbid band students from performing Ave Maria at the 2006 graduation ceremony as a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech. Kathryn Nurre and other seniors at the Henry M. Jackson High School selected the instrumental version of "Ave Maria" to play at the graduation ceremony. Their song choice was vetoed by Everett School District Superintendent Carol Whitehead, who stated that graduation music was required to be "entirely secular in nature." A lower federal court ruled for the school district. It found that the superintendent was within her right to control the content of any speech at the graduation ceremony.  Filmed by C-SPAN. Non-commercial use only. For more information, see http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/283553-1