Supreme Court has declined to suspend a California high school dress code
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to suspend a dress code at a California high school that is at the center of a continuing legal fight over free speech and religious rights. Tyler Chase Harper (Chase), a Poway High School student, filed suit against Poway Unified School District in 2004, claiming his rights to freedom of speech and religion were violated when he was removed from class for wearing an anti-gay T-shirt during a "Day of Silence" meant to promote tolerance of gays and lesbians. He put masking tape on the shirt and wrote "I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned" on the front and "Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27" on the back. He at first sought an injunction preventing the district from enforcing a policy aimed at eliminating "hate behavior" that offended students in racial, gender, sexual preference or other minority groups. Both a San Diego federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Chase's bid for an injunction. The Supreme Court has affirmed those earlier rulings, dealing only with the injunction part of the case. But the closely watched case remains very much alive. In January, the federal district court ruled in favor of the school district on the broader and more substantive issues in the case. The lower court found the school's actions did not infringe on students' rights of free speech and free exercise of religion, nor did it find them hostile to a particular religious viewpoint. It is Chase’s appeal of that ruling that is expected to be the vehicle for settling the constitutional battle over religious freedom and free speech, says Jack Sleeth, the school district’s lawyer. Chase’s attorney, Kevin Theriot, contends the Supreme Court decision is important because it also deemed moot the earlier Ninth Circuit opinion that seemed to greatly expand school district's power to ban speech that demeans students based on their status as minorities. He says the Supreme Court decision wipes away that ruling, which he calls "one of the worst opinions on student speech in years."
San Diego Union-Tribune
By Greg Moran
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: For background on the case, including summaries of the Ninth Circuit and district court opinions, see the first link below. The second link is to the U.S. District Court’s January 2007 order, which dismissed Chase’s claims for relief as moot. Based on this last order, the Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss the appeal as moot.
In 2005 two other students from the same high school were awarded a combined $300,000 jury award over the school’s failure to protect them from harassment based on their sexual orientation. See the third link. The fourth link is to information on a $440,000 settlement of a similar case.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Harper v. Poway Unified Sch. Dist.]
[2007 District Court ruling]
[Gay Alliance of the Genessee Valley on Donovan and Ramelli v. Poway Unified Sch. Dist.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Theno v. Tonganoxie Unified Sch. Dist.]