Case Categories: Students' Rights

• Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (5th Cir.) (2015)

  In Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (2012), the court ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment by punishing a student for posting a...

• Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986)

  In Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986), an important First Amendment precedent, the Supreme Court said public school officials can prohibit...

• Beussink v. Woodland School District (E.D. Mo.) (1998)

  Beussink v. Woodland School District (1998) used the First Amendment to protect the rights of a student who maintained a website that was critical of his school...

• Burnside v. Byars (5th Cir.) (1966)

  Burnside v. Byars (5th Cir. 1966) protected students’ First Amendment rights on school grounds. The decision served as a key precedent for Tinker v. Des...

• Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir.) (2001)

  Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir. 2001) ruled that a public school district did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when it required...

• Chandler v. McMinnville School District (9th Cir.) (1992)

  Chandler v. McMinnville School District (9th Cir. 1992) decided that restrictions on student speech should be evaluated in one of three categories to determine...

• Dariano v. Morgan Hills Unified School District (9th Cir.) (2014)

  Dariano v. Morgan Hills U.S.D. (9th Cir. 2014) ruled that telling students wearing American flag shirts remove them on Cinco de Mayo did not violate the First...

• Dean v. Utica Community Schools (E.D. Mich.) (2004)

  Dean v. Utica Community Schools (E.D. Mich. 2004) said a high school student newspaper was a limited public forum and rejected censorship of it under the First...

• Harper v. Poway Unified School District (9th Cir.) (2006)

  Harper v. Poway Unified School District (9th Cir. 2006) ruled that a school did not violate the First Amendment rights of a student punished for wearing anti-...

• Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

  Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) decided that schools may limit student First Amendment rights if student speech is inconsistent with an...

• Healy v. James (1972)

  Healy v. James (1972) dealt with student groups at public colleges. The Court affirmed college students' First Amendment rights of free speech and association...

• Hoggard v. Rhodes (2021)

  Justice Clarence Thomas argued against granting qualified immunity to university officials in a free speech case, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take it...

• Hosty v. Carter (7th Cir.) (2005)

  Hosty v. Carter (7th Cir. 2005) applied a high school press censorship case to the colleges. First Amendment advocates fear the decision will lead to student...

• Keefe v. Adams (8th Cir.) (2016)

  In Keefe v. Adams (8th Cir., 2016), a circuit court ruled that a public college could expel a nursing student for Facebook posts that indicated a lack of...

• Lander v. Seaver (Vermont Supreme Court) (1859)

  An Vermont Supreme Court decision demonstrates that courts early in America's history permitted fairly harsh discipline of students, even for actions that took...

• Lavine v. Blaine School District (9th Cir.) (2001)

  Lavine v. Blaine School District (9th Cir. 2001) said a school's decision to emergency expel a student who submitted a violent-themed poem did not violate the...

• Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)

  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that school officials violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a cheerleader for...

• Melton v. Young (6th Cir.) (1972)

  Melton v. Young (6th Cir. 1972) represents a time a court had to grapple with the troubling question of the First Amendment and Confederate flag clothing in...

• Morse v. Frederick (2007)

  In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court ruled it is not a denial of First Amendment rights for school officials to censor student speech they believe...

• New Rider v. Board of Education, Pawnee County, Oklahoma (1973)

  In a case involving two Native American students, Justice William Douglas argued that the Supreme Court should settle the disputes in lower courts over the...

• Norton v. Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University (1970)

  Norton v. Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University (1970) involved college students’ First Amendment rights to distribute “inflammatory”...

• Nurre v. Whitehead (2010)

  Nurre v. Whitehead (2010) involved a student, who alleged her First Amendment rights were violated when the band could not perform a religious instrumental at...

• Olff v. East Side Union High School District (1972)

  Although the Supreme Court never accepted a case on hair length of public school students, Justice Douglas dissented many times from the decision not to hear...

• Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973)

  Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973) reaffirmed that universities cannot punish students for indecent speech that does not disrupt...

• Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995)

  Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995) ruled that the denial of student funds to a Christian-based magazine violated the First...

• Settle v. Dickson County School Board (6th Cir.) (1995)

  Settle v. Dickson County School Board (6th Cir. 1995) said that a student's First Amendment rights were not violated when her teacher refused to accept her...

• Taylor v. Roswell Independent School District (10th Cir.) (2013)

  Taylor v. Roswell Independent School District (10th Cir. 2013) rejected the First Amendment claims of students prohibited from further distributing rubber fetus...

• Thomas v. Board of Education, Granville (2d Cir.) (1979)

  Thomas v. Board of Education, Granville (2d Cir. 1979) ruled that a school violated the First Amendment rights when they punished students for creating an off-...

• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

  Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) established that public school students have First Amendment rights. It is the seminal...

• West v. Derby Unified School District (10th Cir.) (2000)

  West v. Derby Unified School District (10th. Cir. 2000) ruled that suspending a high school student for drawing a Confederate flag did not violate his First...