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Page Number: 4

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 20–255 
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MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, PETITIONER v. 
B. L., A MINOR, BY AND THROUGH HER FATHER, 
LAWRENCE LEVY AND HER MOTHER, 
BETTY LOU LEVY 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT 

[June 23, 2021] 

JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. 
A public high school student used, and transmitted to her
Snapchat friends, vulgar language and gestures criticizing 
both  the  school  and  the  school’s  cheerleading  team.  The 
student’s  speech  took  place  outside  of  school  hours  and 
away from the school’s campus.  In response, the school sus-
pended the student for a year from the cheerleading team. 
We must decide whether the Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit correctly held that the school’s decision violated the 
First Amendment.  Although we do not agree with the rea-
soning  of  the  Third  Circuit  panel’s  majority,  we  do  agree 
with its conclusion that the school’s disciplinary action vio-
lated the First Amendment. 

I 
A 
B. L. (who, together with her parents, is a respondent in
this case) was a student at Mahanoy Area High School, a
public school in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.  At the end of 
her  freshman  year,  B. L.  tried  out  for  a  position  on  the