Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-255_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 25.0

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

11 

ALITO, J., concurring 

B 
The degree to which enrollment in a public school can be
regarded  as  a  delegation  of  authority  over  off-campus
speech depends on the nature of the speech and the circum-
stances under which it occurs.  I will not attempt to provide 
a  complete  taxonomy  of  off-premises  speech,  but  relevant 
lower court cases tend to fall into a few basic groups.  And 
with respect to speech in each of these groups, the question 
that  courts  must  ask  is  whether  parents  who  enroll  their
children in a public school can reasonably be understood to 
have delegated to the school the authority to regulate the
speech in question.

One  category  of  off-premises  student  speech falls  easily 
within the scope of the authority that parents implicitly or 
explicitly provide.  This category includes speech that takes
place during or as part of what amounts to a temporal or
spatial extension of the regular school program, e.g., online 
instruction  at  home,  assigned  essays  or  other  homework,
and transportation to and from school.  Also included are 
statements  made  during  other  school  activities  in  which 
students  participate  with  their  parents’  consent,  such  as
school trips, school sports and other extracurricular activi-
ties  that  may  take  place  after  regular  school  hours  or  off 
school  premises,  and  after-school  programs  for  students 
who would otherwise be without adult supervision during 
that time.  Abusive speech that occurs while students are
walking to and from school may also fall into this category 
on the theory that it is school attendance that puts students
on that route and in the company of the fellow students who 
engage in the abuse.  The imperatives that justify the reg-
ulation of student speech while in school—the need for or-
derly and effective instruction and student protection—ap-
ply more or less equally to these off-premises activities. 

Most of the specific examples of off-premises speech that 
the Court mentions fall into this category.  See ante, at 6