How many tablespoons in one walnut?

Answer 1

What Happened?

-The case started in 2002, when the Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska let students cross the street to watch the Olympic torch pass on its way to Salt Lake City.

-As TV cameras rolled, senior Joseph Frederick and several friends held a banner saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" just a way to get on television.

-But the school principal told him to put the banner away, and when Frederick refused to take the banner down, she suspended him for 10 days.

-Frederick sued the principal and school for violation of his free speech

-The principal argued that she thought the message was about pot smoking and that it broke school rules against promoting illegal drugs

- Frederick said that the phrase on the banner, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus", "was never meant to have any substantive meaning. It was certainly not intended as a drug or religious message. I conveyed this to the principal by explaining it was intended to be funny, subjectively interpreted by the reader and most importantly an exercise of my inalienable right to free speech."

Journey from lower federal courts to the Supreme Court:

-Frederick filed a suit against the principal and school board in US District Court, alleging the principal's actions infringed his First Amendment rights. The District Court granted summary judgment to the defendants, holding that the Morse made a reasonable interpretation of the banner's message, and was authorized to stop the potentially disruptive activity because it occurred at a school-sponsored event. The Court ruled that Morse and the Juneau School Board had qualified immunity against legal action, and had not infringed Frederick's right to free speech.

-Frederick appealed the suit to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which reversed the lower court ruling on the grounds that the school had punished Frederick without demonstrating that his expression posed a "risk of substantial disruption." The Ninth Circuit's holding closely paralleled the decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, a Supreme Court case that upheld students' right to non-disruptive political expression.

-The school board petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit's decision. On December 1, 2006, the Court accepted the case

-Deborah Morse and the Juneau School Board won by a vote of 5-4. The Supreme Court held that the "school speech" doctrine applied, allowing greater restriction of students' free speech, because the incident occurred at a school-sponsored event during the school day, among other students