page_title: Morse v. Frederick
section_title: Background and procedural history
hierarchical_section_title: Morse v. Frederick / Background and procedural history
caption_attribution_description: English: Original banner now hanging in the Newseum in Washington, DC
context_page_description: Morse v. Frederick, is a United States Supreme Court case where the Court held, 5–4, that the First Amendment does not prevent educators from suppressing student speech that is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use at or across the street from a school-supervised event.
  In 2002, Juneau-Douglas High School principal Deborah Morse suspended Joseph Frederick after he displayed a banner reading "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" across the street from the school during the 2002 Winter Olympics torch relay. Frederick sued, claiming his constitutional rights to free speech were violated. His suit was dismissed by the federal district court, but on appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed the ruling, concluding that Frederick's speech rights were violated. The case then went on to the Supreme Court.
  Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, concluded that the school officials did not violate the First Amendment.
context_section_description: On January 24, 2002, students and staff at Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska were permitted to leave classes to watch the Olympic Torch pass by as part of the 2002 Winter Olympics torch relay. Joseph Frederick, who was late for school that day, joined some friends on the sidewalk across from the high school, off school grounds. Frederick and his friends waited for the television cameras so they could unfurl a banner reading "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS". Frederick was quoted as saying he had first seen the phrase on a snowboard sticker. When they displayed the banner, then-principal Deborah Morse ran across the street and seized it.
  Morse initially suspended Frederick for five days for violating the school district's anti-drug policy, but increased the suspension to ten days after Frederick quoted Thomas Jefferson. Frederick administratively appealed his suspension to the superintendent who denied his appeal but limited it to the time Frederick had already spent out of school prior to his appeal to the superintendent (eight days). Frederick then appealed to the Juneau School Board, which upheld the suspension on March 19, 2002.
caption: The original banner hung in the Newseum in Washington, DC.
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