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School’s Right to Censor Does Not Extend to Guiles v. Marineau
Legal cases have their own peculiar twists and turns, which make them very interesting to follow.
In one such curious twist, a student free speech case from Alaska that was lost before the U.S. Supreme Court likely helped to produce a "win" for a student free speech case that the ACLU-VT brought.
The student, Zachary Guiles of Williamstown, was vindicated, setting an important precedent for future student free speech cases.
Zach, a 13-year-old Williamstown Middle School student in 2004, wore a T-shirt critical of President Bush to school.
Zach was told that he couldn’t wear the T-shirt unless he taped over certain parts (pictures of a martini glass, a marijuana cigarette, and cocaine. The pictures were allusions to Bush’s alleged former substance abuse problems) which were also described in words on the T-shirt.
The school claimed the display of the pictures violated the school’s dress policy, which prohibits all images of drugs, or drug paraphernalia, on student clothing.
After a trial in August 2004 in Burlington, U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III ruled that Zach’s free speech rights covered the written words on the T-shirt, even those words describing Bush’s alleged drug problems. However, Sessions said, those rights did not cover the pictures on the T-shirt. The school’s policy against drug images of any type allowed it to censor that part of the shirt.
The ACLU appealed the decision to the Second Circuit, which in August 2006 agreed Zach’s free speech rights had been violated.
The school then applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for cert (asking the court, to take up the case on appeal). Fewer than one in 10 cases are granted cert.
The Supreme Court did not immediately deny cert. In fact, the court held on to Guiles for six months. Three days after the Alaska case (the infamous "Bong Hits for Jesus" case) was decided, though, cert for Guiles was denied. The court had been waiting to rule in Morse v. Frederick ("Bong Hits") before deciding what to do with Guiles.
Although the court’s decision in Morse v. Frederick was viewed as a victory for a school’s right of censorship, the decision was very narrow. The justices were careful to say it only applied to student comments advocating use of illegal drugs. They stated in clear terms that censorship may not extend to political comments made by students. That distinguished the case from Guiles.
Denial of cert in Guiles allowed the Second Circuit decision to stand. That decision is a strong, principled endorsement of student free speech rights in the tradition of the late-1960s Tinker case.
Editors note: Allen Gilbert is a member of the U-32 school board and the executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
