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Page Number: 35.0

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MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DIST. v. B. L. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

A  more  searching  review  reveals  that  schools  historically
could  discipline  students  in  circumstances  like  those  pre-
sented here.  Because the majority does not attempt to ex-
plain why we should not apply this historical rule and does
not attempt to tether its approach to anything stable, I re-
spectfully dissent. 

I 
A 
While the majority entirely ignores the relevant history,
I  would  begin  the  assessment  of  the  scope  of  free-speech 
rights incorporated against the States by looking to “what
‘ordinary  citizens’  at  the  time  of  [the  Fourteenth  Amend-
ment’s] ratification would have understood” the right to en-
compass.  McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 813 (2010) 
(THOMAS,  J.,  concurring  in  part  and  concurring  in  judg-
ment).  Cases and treatises from that era reveal that public 
schools  retained  substantial  authority  to  discipline  stu-
dents.  As I have previously explained, that authority was 
near plenary while students were at school.  See Morse v. 
Frederick,  551  U. S.  393,  419  (2007)  (concurring  opinion).
Authority also extended to when students were traveling to
or from school.  See, e.g., Lander v. Seaver, 32 Vt. 114, 120 
(1859).  And,  although  schools  had  less  authority  after  a 
student  returned  home,  it  was  well  settled  that  they  still 
could discipline students for off-campus speech or conduct 
that had a proximate tendency to harm the school environ-
ment. 

Perhaps the most familiar example applying this rule is 
a case where a student, after returning home from school,
used “disrespectful language” against a teacher—he called 
the teacher “old”—“in presence of the [teacher] and of some 
of his fellow pupils.”  Id., at 115 (emphasis deleted).  The 
Vermont Supreme Court held that the teacher could disci-
pline a student for this speech because the speech had “a