Opinion ID: 3051961
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District’s Interests Are Unrelated to the

Text: Suppression of Free Expression Because the District’s stated interests are “unrelated to the suppression of free expression,” we conclude that the second prong of the intermediate scrutiny test is satisfied, as well. See Turner, 512 U.S. at 662; O’Brien, 391 U.S. at 377. [18] On their face, the District’s goals have nothing to do with quelling speech or limiting expression. Accord Castorina ex rel. Rewt v. Madison County Sch. Bd., 246 F.3d 536, 548 (6th Cir. 2001) (Kennedy, J., concurring) (“[A] stable, disruption-free educational environment is a substantial government interest . . . unrelated to the suppression of student expression.”). Additionally, the record is devoid of any evidence suggesting that the District’s stated goals were mere pretexts for its true purpose of preventing students from expressing their views on particular subjects, such as support for a particular faith (in Jacobs’s case) or opposition to conformity (in Dresser’s case). The District may have known that views like these would be incidentally suppressed because of its schools’ uniform policies; however, its reasons for enacting the uniform policies were—as far as the record reveals— entirely divorced from preventing student speech. • Instilling students with discipline; • Helping parents and students resist peer pressure; • Helping students concentrate on their school work; and • Helping school officials recognize intruders who come to the school. JACOBS v. CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DIST. 5207 [19] Again, the referendum sent home to parents is telling. Although the District acknowledges in this referendum that its school uniform policies would limit student creativity and restrict students’ freedom to express themselves in nonviolent ways, it lists these effects in the “Cons - Disadvantages” column, thus implying that the District enacted the Regulation authorizing school uniforms not because of, but in spite of, the impact school uniform policies would have on students’ expressive opportunities. We thus conclude that the District’s interests are not pretexts for an underlying desire to limit free speech but, rather, are directed only at creating an educational environment free from the distractions, dangers, and disagreements that result when student clothing choices are left unrestricted. Cf. City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U.S. 41, 48 (1986) (expressing less First Amendment concern regarding policies “aimed not at the content” of the forbidden speech, but rather at the “secondary effects” of that speech).39