Drug WarRant

[DdC]

School's Fight To Censor Ensures We Won't Forget By Beth Bragg
CN Source: Anchorage Daily News  August 30, 2006 Juneau, Alaska

When it comes to Bong Hits 4 Jesus, here's some Advice 4 Dummies: If the phrase poses such a threat to the health and future of any teenager exposed to it, then stop making a federal case out of it.

If the Juneau School Board, in its infinite stubbornness, is so worried that the message waved on a banner four years ago at a nonschool event will lead high school kids down the path to illegal drug use, why does it insist on giving the message such tremendous exposure?

Google "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and you'll get 14,100 hits. Included among them is proof positive that the message has become part of the vernacular: It has its own Wikipedia entry.

And all Joe Frederick wanted was to catch the eye of a TV cameraman.

Frederick is the man who, back when he was a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School, made a 10-foot banner to wave as the Olympic torch relay passed through Juneau. A true Alaska artist, he used butcher paper as his canvas and duct tape as his paint to craft the sign that now waves in perpetuity: Bong Hits 4 Jesus.

The school principal, Deborah Morse, went nuts -- even though Frederick wasn't on school property, wasn't at a school-sponsored event, wasn't under direct supervision of school employees and wasn't representing the school in any way imaginable.

Nor did he cause a disruption at school. School officials admitted as much to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for Morse and the school board argue that Morse's confiscation of the banner and suspension of Frederick were justified because the poster was inconsistent with the school's mission to teach a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Complete Title: School's Fight To Censor Poster Ensures We'll Never Forget It
Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/k6td7

Contact: letters@adn.com * Website



Bong Hits 4 Posterity
School's Fight To Censor Poster Ensures We'll Never Forget It by Beth Bragg

Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ Case To U.S. Supreme Court?
CN Source: Associated Press August 30, 2006  Juneau, Alaska

Former Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Alaska’s “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a dispute involving a high school student, a banner and a tough school policy.

Starr, who gained national prominence while investigating former President Clinton’s Whitewater land deal and relationship with Monica Lewinsky, filed the petition Monday on behalf of the Juneau School District in response to a March ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeals court sided with a high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” during an Olympic torch relay in 2002. It ruled former Juneau-Douglas High School principal Deborah Morse violated former student Joseph Frederick’s free speech rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court petition must receive a minimum of four of the nine justices’ votes to be heard.

Frederick, then a senior, was off school property when he hoisted the banner but was suspended for violating the school’s policy of promoting illegal substances at a school-sanctioned event.

“The principal’s actions were so outrageous, basically leaving school grounds and punishing a student for a message that is not damaging to the school,” said his attorney, Doug Mertz.

Superintendent Peggy Cowan said clarification is needed on the rights of administrators when it comes to disciplinary action of students who break the district’s drug message policy.

“The district’s decision to move forward is not disrespectful to the First Amendment or the rights of students,” she said. “This is an important question about how the First Amendment applies to pro-drug messages in an educational setting.”
Starr, of the Los Angeles-based firm Kirkland & Ellis, took the case pro bono.

The outcome could have implications on how student-conduct policies are enforced around the nation, said Eric Hagen, one of two other attorneys from Starr’s office named on the petition.

“It makes it a little harder when teachers and principals in their daily duties might be subject to a damages lawsuit and be held personally liable,” Hagen said.

School Board Stands by Plans to Appeal

'Bong Hits' To Supreme Court?

Protecting The Right To Dissent

MSNBC Live Vote
Do you agree with the federal court's ruling that the Alaska high school student's banner, unfurled across from his school, reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is protected free speech?



Starr moves up from Presidential Blow-Jobs to Bong Hits for Jesus

Clearly, this is a free speech issue. And this extremely high-priced legal group, led by the blow-job prosecutor, is stepping up to make sure that Americans will not have the right to talk freely -- specifically about drugs or drug policy.
Fascinating. Anybody know who is paying the bill?
Drug WarRant by Pete Guither



You're asking the government to control individual morality.
This is a government that can't buy a toilet seat for under $600.
-- Peter McWilliams



President Clinton’s impeachment nemesis Kenneth Starr is staying busy. Monday, the former Independent Counsel is expected to file a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the suspension of a high school student disciplined for holding a banner across the street from campus reading, “BONG HITS 4 JESUS.”

The incident occurred in January 2002, as the Olympic torch relay wound through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the winter games in Salt Lake City. As the torch passed by the school, student Joseph Frederick and friends unfurled the banner across the street from campus apparently to attract the attention of television cameras.

A bong is a popular device used to smoke marijuana, inhalation from which is commonly known as a “bong hit.” The school principal suspended Mr. Frederick — allegedly the only student who disobeyed her command to put down the banner — for 10 days.

Mr. Frederick claimed the suspension violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. A federal district judge sided with the school, but a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously reversed.

Mr. Starr and other attorneys in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis have accepted the case pro bono. Should the court grant the petition, the outcome could hinge on whether the banner disrupted the educational process, whether watching the relay was a school-sponsored event, and whether Mr. Frederick — who had yet to enter school property that morning because his car had been stuck in the snow — was officially on campus. –Ben Winograd

* Read the petition to be filed with the Supreme Court



Banner Canned: Free Speech Rights at Issue By Andrew Krueger
FoM Source: Juneau Empire January 31, 2002  

Two students have been suspended from Juneau-Douglas High School after being in a group that unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed the school last week.

One of the suspended students says his free speech rights were violated when school administrators confiscated the banner and disciplined him. School officials say the banner was displayed during a school activity, thus falling under school control.

Last Thursday, as the torch passed the high school on Glacier Avenue, senior Joseph Frederick and a group of about 20 other students and nonstudents standing across the street from JDHS unfurled a 15-by-3-foot white paper banner with their message emblazoned in duct tape.

High school officials took the banner down and took disciplinary action against some members of the group. Frederick said he and one other student in the group received suspensions; Frederick's was for 10 days.

Frederick said the group displayed the banner - whose content was gleaned from stickers seen on cars and snowboards - to see how people would react and as a test of their First Amendment rights.

"Some people laughed, some people cheered," he said. "Nobody really seemed bothered by it."

Frederick said the group specifically went off school grounds to display the banner. In addition, Frederick said that given the composition of the group and the fact that he had not been in school that morning due to car trouble in the snow, he did not consider the group to be part of a school activity.

"We went across the street, standing with adults and people who don't go to high school," he said.

JDHS Principal Deb Morse said even though the banner was displayed off school grounds, it was removed and the students disciplined because watching the torch relay "was a school activity. It was sanctioned by the school that students could be out (to watch the torch pass)."

Morse said students let out of class lined both sides of Glacier Avenue, and school policy states that discipline enforcement extends to "any school sponsored/sanctioned activity." She also said the disciplinary action taken in this case addressed "more than just the banner."

Frederick said he is unsure about whether he is going to appeal the suspension, but he feels his rights were violated.

"There's no reason that because someone is still in high school that they shouldn't have First Amendment rights," he said.

Morse said the school was within its rights to take action against displaying the banner.

"At school it's a bit different," she said. "There are things that are appropriate and inappropriate, and that was inappropriate."

Note: 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' sign at Olympic Torch Relay leads to two JDHS students being suspended.

Contact: editor1@alaska.net * Website

CannabisNews - Cannabis Archives



Bong Hits For Jesus!
posted by Slutia on January 31, 2002 at 18:39:40 PT:

I am not sure if these guys got the slogan from our annual Mardi Gras counter protest (where we taunt the hundreds of self righteous fundamentalist bigots are bused in from the bible belt to try to bust up the party. They are given bullhorns with which they shout at people, telling them they are going to hell for wearing beads and other crazy slogans, and hateful signs stating that God hates fags and un-submissive wives.).

Last year there were hundreds of pictures taken of our protest, and the Yahoo! club has been around for about a year. I don't know if these guys borrowed the slogan, or came up with it independantly, but all I can say is Right On! If anyone would lika a BHFJ! T-shirt (perfect for getting sent home from school!), you can get them @ cafepress.com/bonghitjesus These T-shirts are sold at cost. Spread the word! Peace, Brian (That is me in the photo with the T-shirts BTW)



Bong Hits For Jesus @ Yahoo!

Jesus saves with kind buds. Thank you Jesus for dank and heady nugs. Every year on Mardi Gras day, Alcoholics for Jesus gathers in Jackson Square to testify with all our Jesus loving friends. Come witness with us on Feb. 12th brothers and sisters! Let's save New Orleans, the city of sin.

[DdC]

Bong Hits Saga Enters Year Five By Will Morris  
CN Source: Juneau Empire January 28, 2007 Alaska 

Five years after Joseph Frederick was suspended for showing a banner that said, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," he still waits for vindication.

The 18-year-old student was trying to make a statement during the running of the torch for the 2002 Winter Olympics, his attorney said. He unfurled his banner across from Juneau-Douglas High School. Former Principal Deborah Morse walked across the street and ripped it down.

Since then, the confrontation has escalated into a court case of national importance. On March 19, it will go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Frederick and his father say through their attorney that they are the victims of abuse by people who oppose their lawsuit. They sit in Asia in a form of exile, and they wait. They could not be reached for comment, and their attorney declined to provide contact information.

On one side of the case is the Juneau School Board. Its representatives say Frederick was at a school-sanctioned event when Morse ripped down the banner. Their argument is that administrators have the responsibility to enforce School Board policy, part of which is to discourage drug use.

On the other side is Frederick, who claims his right to free speech was violated when the sign was torn down and he was suspended for 10 days.

Frederick appealed the suspension. The School Board upheld it, and Frederick filed a lawsuit, which a federal judge dismissed in 2003. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2006 Frederick's civil rights had been violated. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Legal precedence and an award of several thousands of dollars in attorney's fees hang in the balance.

Doug Mertz, Frederick's co-counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said support is coming from groups worried about free speech.

"We've gotten a lot of support from conservative groups who are concerned about cutting back free speech in the schools could lead to deprivation of our free-speech rights," Mertz said.

The School Board also has it supporters, the National School Boards Association and the American Association of School Administrators.

Both sides in the case say they are misunderstood.

David Crosby, attorney for the School District, said there is a public perception that the School Board started this case. Crosby said the district is merely defending itself. To do otherwise would be derelict, he said. If the district loses or drops the case, it will have to pay out roughly $100,000 in legal fees, he said.

"It would be incredibly irresponsible to walk away and write a check for $100,000," he said. "Remember, Frederick sued the school board. All the money the district spent was in defense. What are you supposed to do when you are sued?"

Mertz said people don't realize the venom with which the school has pursued Frederick. He said they harassed him before the Bong hits incident, and afterwards Frederick's father was terminated from his job with the insurance company that covered the city.

He was eventually black-balled from the insurance industry, Mertz said, forcing him to move to Asia to teach English. His son followed him.

Crosby said reports of harassment against the Fredericks by the district are exaggerated.

Part of the public outcry against the lawsuit has been the public cost. Calls placed to Superintendent Peggy Cowan about the costs were forwarded to Crosby.

Crosby said the costs are hard to calculate. Insurance has paid for all the attorney's fees. Ken Starr will represent the district before the Supreme Court, pro bono. The decision has not been made yet as to what district official may go to Washington, D.C., to be present during the arguments.

Juneau resident Erik Lie-Nielsen is one of those who think the case should be dropped.

"I think the true cost is probably quite heavy, and we'll probably never know what it is," he said.

"What they did to this kid was unpardonable," he said.

"This is the kind of thing they did in Russia."

Note: Suit carried all the way to U.S. Supreme Court, to be heard March 19.

Contact: letterstotheeditor@juneauempire.com * Website

Top Court Takes `Bong Hits' Case on Free Speech
Court Takes 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Case
Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ Case To U.S. Supreme Court?

[DdC]

Free-Speech Case Divides Bush and Religious Right By Linda Greenhouse
CN Source: New York Times March 17, 2007 Washington, DC  
A Supreme Court case about the free-speech rights of high school students, to be argued on Monday, has opened an unexpected fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies on the religious right. As a result, an appeal that asks the justices to decide whether school officials can squelch or punish student advocacy of illegal drugs has taken on an added dimension as a window on an active front in the culture wars, one that has escaped the notice of most people outside the fray. And as the stakes have grown higher, a case that once looked like an easy victory for the government side may prove to be a much closer call.
Continued...cannabisnews/22764

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens,
nor should they be considered patriots.
This is one nation under God." -- George Bush

Bong Hits 4 Jesus Banner Brings Duo to D.C. By Bill Harlan
CN Source: Rapid City Journal March 17, 2007 Rapid City, SD  
The two Stevens High School seniors who showed up for class last fall wearing T-shirts supporting medical marijuana are headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. David Valenzuela and Chris Fuentes, both 18, don't have a case before the high court. In fact, they won't even go inside. The two students will, however, address a free-speech rally Monday on the court's front steps.
Continued...cannabisnews/22763

'Bong' Banner Tests Student Free Speech By Mark Sherman
CN Source: Associated Press March 16, 2007 Washington, DC 
The message connected drug use and religion in a nonsensical phrase that was designed to provoke, and it got Joseph Frederick in a heap of trouble. After he unfurled his 14-foot "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner on a Juneau, Alaska, street one winter morning in 2002, Frederick got a 10-day school suspension. Five years later, he has a date Monday at the Supreme Court in what is shaping up as an important test of constitutional rights.
Continued...cannabisnews/22758

"They that start by burning books will end by burning men."
(German) "Dort, wo man BŸcher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen."
--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), from his play Almansor (1821)

[DdC]

Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Serious levity at the Supreme Court today
Monday, March 19, 2007

The most important student free-speech conflict to reach the Supreme Court since the height of the Vietnam War...

Yes, today is the day that nine Supreme Court Justices convene in the highest court in the most powerful country in the world and discuss...
Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Oh, I wish I could be there when Ken Starr, who has already altered the national status of blow-jobs, explains to the Supreme Court that "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" threatens the fabric of our nation and our educational system.

Of course, the reality is that this is a serious case. At its worst, the Supreme Court (no friend to any case involving even the hint of drugs) could rule that schools have broad authority to regulate student speech that is contrary to their educational message, even if they are not in school and the speech is not disruptive.

And there's also a deep significance as to the philosophy of educating citizens. It concerns me that authoritarians are pushing to train young people that the proper order of things in a free democracy is submission to authority. Get used to peeing in a cup on demand. Get used to being controlled in what you think, what you say. That's what the world is about.
For the most comprehensive look at the case, check out my resource guide: [url=][/url] http://bong.drugwarrant.com

If you're in DC today, SSDP will be holding a rally at the Supreme Court .

Court To Hear 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Case By Mark Sherman
CN Source: Associated Press March 19, 2007 Washington, DC 
Scores of students waited outside the Supreme Court on Monday for a chance to listen to arguments in a test of student speech rights - a high school senior's display of a banner reading ``Bong Hits 4 Jesus.'' ``I would never do it, but at the same time, it's free speech,'' said Chaim Frenkel, 17, of Silver Spring, Md. Frenkel was one of 13 seniors and their teacher from the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy who arrived at the court at 4:30 a.m. EDT.
Continued...cannabisnews/22770

Student Free Speech vs. School Drug Policy By Warren Richey
CN Source: Christian Science Monitor March 18, 2007 Washington, DC 
A dispute over a student prank near a high school in Juneau, Alaska, is raising constitutional questions about student free speech and whether school officials can be sued for damages when they take action to muzzle a teenager's attempt at humor. On Monday, the US Supreme Court takes up a case involving a student-displayed banner that proclaimed: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
Continued...cannabisnews/22767

Bong Banner Free-Speech Dispute To Hit SC Tomorrow By Robert Barnes
CN Source: Seattle Times March 18, 2007 Washington, DC  
The most important student free-speech conflict to reach the Supreme Court since the height of the Vietnam War hinges on a somewhat absurd, vaguely offensive, mostly nonsensical message of protest: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." That's the slogan high-school student Joseph Frederick fashioned in 2002 with a 14-foot piece of paper and a $3 roll of duct tape. His goal was partly to get on TV as the Olympic torch passed through his town of Juneau, Alaska, and mostly to get under the skin of his disciplinarian principal, Deborah Morse, with whom he had a running feud.
Continued...cannabisnews/22766

High Court Takes On 'Bong By Eric Morrison Hits'
CN Source: Juneau Empire March 18, 2007 Alaska  
A goofy sign on Glacier Avenue sparked a debate that many are calling the most important fight over student free speech since the Vietnam War. The questions: Did former Juneau-Douglas High School student Joseph Frederick have the right to hold up a banner declaring "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" while off school grounds? Did former principal Deborah Morse infringe his First Amendment rights by suspending him?
Continued...cannabisnews/22765

High Court Upholds Chicago Park-Use Permit
No Free Speech or Right to Assemble

D.E.A. Confirms Grounds To Remove Cannabis from Sch#1

Drug Czar Manipulating Data in a Report to Congress

FDA-Approved Medical Marijuana Research Blocked

Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74

GOPerverted Officials

McCollum/Return of the Undead 2 12/26/03
Former Congressman Bill McCollum (R-FL), who as head of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime played a key role in much of the repressive anti-drug legislation to pass in the last 15 years. But McCollum's has been condemned not only by drug reformers but by privacy advocates as well. He was winner of the Orwell Award at the 1999 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Washington, DC. That dishonor goes to the person who has most promoted Big Brotherism. McCollum scored the award for his efforts to give the FBI expanded wire-tapping capabilities and the ability to read encrypted emails.

Monsanto's Cliarence Thomas May 29, 2003

The Ultimate Hypocrisy: "Justice" Thomas, Who Smoked Marijuana At Yale Law School, Writes Supreme Court Opinion Against Medical Cannabis. Drug War Depends Upon Persecution of Sick and Dying.

Bush administration's many ties between the prepident's team and Monsanto, the big Missouri chemical company that promotes genetically engineered foods.

For starters, consider the fact that Bush Sr. appointed Clarence Thomas, a Monsanto attorney, to the Supreme Court. Thomas cast a key vote in the decision that handed the White House to George Jr.

In addition, John Ashcroft, Dubya's choice for attorney general, was the top recipient of Monsanto contributions during his losing reelection campaign for the U.S. Senate. While he was in the Senate, Ashcroft fought hard for Monsanto. He was active abroad in convincing hesitant nations to accept genetically engineered crops and is credited with persuading the British to push for European Union acceptance of Monsanto's Roundup Ready corn.

Other links include Donald Rumsfeld, the new secretary of defense, who was president of Searle Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Monsanto, and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who was on the board of directors of Calgene Pharmaceuticals, another Monsanto affiliate.

Over at HHS, there's new secretary Tommy Thompson. While he was governor of Wisconsin, Thompson was a good friend to Monsanto and other biotech firms. He received $50,000 from biotech companies in his election campaign, and got the state to set up a $37 million biotech zone in Wisconsin.

What the WHO doesn't want you to know about cannabis

Clinton ask Supreams to Overturn MMJ ruling

Secret Searches Bill

Legislation Introduced to Overturn DC Initiative

Food Stamps Become a Weapon in the War on Drugs

Drug Czar Seeks To Ban All Hemp Products

When We Give Up Freedoms

Censoring the internet for talking about hemp By David Noack
Dec. 20, 1999 WASHINGTON (APBnews.com)

Critics Say Measure Violates Free-Speech Rights

The days of ordering bongs and pipes and other drug paraphernalia online, getting information on the medical uses of marijuana or instructions on growing hemp may go up in smoke if lawmakers have their way.

The law would make it a felony to "teach, demonstrate, or distribute any information pertaining to the manufacture of a controlled substance,"

"This provision would make it a federal crime, for example, to provide to medical marijuana patients information on how to cultivate marijuana, even in those states where it is legal for patients to grow marijuana under state law,"

Making War On Free Speech!
The Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act (S. 486/H.R. 2987). But the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously, still contains limitations on free speech that are breathtaking in their breadth.

The shocking thing is that such an effort to control speech could have been introduced and passed through the Senate so casually, as if the First Amendment were some sort of historic artifact to which legislators need pay no never-mind.

The language is so broad that it could criminalize almost any published speech about illegal drugs.

Meth Bill/Free Speech by Richard Lake

The Anti-Meth Bill includes hemp - Washington Post

Closing Ranks on MAPA/Secret Searches Bill Passes By R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.
Source: Washington Times Commentary May 26, 2000 MAPA, if passed by Congress, would empower federal agents to search your home and take your property without immediately informing you — possibly without ever informing you.

Prohibitionist Deceptions

Knowledge Control - Reason Magazine

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), is either dense or disingenuous. Cannon doesn’t want to abridge freedom of speech; he just wants to censor dangerous information.

It’s disturbing that a piece of legislation like this one could sail through the Senate without a peep about the First Amendment. But it’s not surprising that drug control has evolved into knowledge control.

After all, "a drug-free America," a goal repeatedly endorsed by Congress, is a totalitarian fantasy. Those who seek to achieve it are naturally driven to totalitarian means.

Censorship is not the only threat. Another MAPA provision authorizes "sneak and peek" searches of people’s homes. Federal agents could execute a search without notice and make copies of papers or computer files without furnishing a list of what they took.

Istook the Constitution and set it on fire
WASHINGTON 04 Dec 2003
Rep. Ernest Istook has sliced the budget of the Washington transit authority by more than $90,000 because of ads placed on local buses promoting the legalization of marijuana.

Corporations That Own Our Media

A Lie College Students Might Want To Tell
Souders Higher Education Ax

The Drug War: Suppression Tactics Will Never Work

Prejudice: Marijuana and Jim Crow Laws

Freedom of Religion

"Parallel to the training of the body a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and simulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth...Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea."
Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", Vol. 1, Chapter 10



Free Speech 4 Students Rally

On March 19th, the Supreme Court will hear a case in which they will be asked to outlaw ALL SPEECH in high schools concerning drugs or drug policy!

The following activities could be banned:
• Writing a paper on the history of drug prohibition.
• Debating marijuana legalization on a debate team.
• Questioning the school’s drug testing policy.
• Anything that could be construed as promoting illegal drugs.

Dozens of students will rally at the Supreme Court to tell the Justices to preserve free speech for students. Will you be one of them?

Background:

In 2002, Juneau-Douglas High School student Joseph Frederick and his friends unfurled a large banner that read "BONG HITS 4 JESUS" as the Olympic Torch passed his high school.

When the principal of the high school asked the students to take down the banner, all complied except Frederick, who asserted his First Amendment rights. Morse grabbed and crumpled the banner and suspended Frederick.

Frederick sued and initially lost, but then won in the 9th Circuit court. The school board has appealed the case to the Supreme Court, led by attorney Kenneth Starr (known primarily to the public for his role as special counsel in the Monica Lewinski case), who is essentially arguing for a drug exception to free speech right in public schools.

Because a ruling against Frederick could effectively ban all speech regarding drugs or drug policy, SSDP submitted an Amicus Curiae brief on behalf of the student (PDF), and plans to rally students at the Supreme Court on March 19th...

(Further reading about the case can be found at this ACLU page and this DrugWarRant page.)

If you plan on attending the rally, please RSVP here!

March 19, 2007
From: 09:00 AM until 12:00 PM

Address
Supreme Court of the United States
One First Street N.E. Washington, DC 20543


SSDP 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW | Suite 300 | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-4414 | Fax: (202) 293-8344

[DdC]

Students’ Right To Free Speech Editorial
CN Source: New York Times March 19, 2007 Washington, DC 
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that has attracted attention mainly because of its eccentric story line: An Alaska student was suspended from high school in 2002 after he unfurled a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” while the Olympic torch passed by. But the case raises important issues of freedom of expression and student censorship that go far beyond the words on that banner. The court should affirm the appeals court’s well-reasoned decision that when the school punished the student it violated his First Amendment rights.
Continued...cannabisnews/22777

Justices Debate Student's Suspension for Banner By Joan Biskupic
CN Source: USA Today March 19, 2007 Washington, DC 
In a feisty session over a student's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner, former independent counsel Kenneth Starr urged the Supreme Court Monday to let public schools ban signs, buttons or other messages that undercut their anti-drug policy. As scores of curious students milled in and around the columned building, Starr argued that a principal in Juneau, Alaska, did not violate Joseph Frederick's speech rights when she tore down the banner he had unfurled at an Olympic Torch Relay parade in 2002.
Continued...cannabisnews/22775

Justices Weigh Free Speech vs. School Control By Karoun Demirjian 
CN Source: Chicago Tribune March 19, 2007 Washington, DC  
The Supreme Court on Monday debated the weighty question of how restrictive schools can be in restraining students' free-speech rights, but the case will turn on whether a teacher who suspended a student for carrying a 14-foot banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" went too far. Joe Frederick, then a student in Juneau, Alaska, was standing across the street from his high school with friends at a Winter Olympic Torch relay event in January 2002. Students had been let out to watch the event, and as the television cameras rolled by, Frederick and his friends unfurled the banner.
Continued...cannabisnews/22774

Court Hears Arguments on Student Speech By Linda Greenhouse
CN Source: New York Times March 19, 2007 Washington, DC  
Kenneth W. Starr had a strategy for convincing the Supreme Court that an Alaska high school principal and school board did not violate a student’s free-speech rights by punishing him for displaying the words “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” on a 14-foot-long banner across the street from school as the 2002 Olympic torch parade went by. “Illegal drugs and the glorification of the drug culture are profoundly serious problems for our nation,” Mr. Starr, a former solicitor general, told the justices in the opening moments of his argument on Monday.
Continued...cannabisnews/22773

Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Free Speech Case By David G. Savage
CN Source: Los Angeles Times March 19, 2007 Washington, DC

"Most of them sounded as though they leaned in favor of the school principal. At the same time, they were wary of saying officials have broad power to punish students whenever they think a student's message is offensive or inappropriate."

"Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said it would be "disturbing" if principals had such broad authority to pass judgment on what students say at or near school."
Complete Article

"A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth that is what I am after...
I will have no intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin for my young men."
Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation"

Update on Bong Hits Hearing by Pete Güither
DWR Monday, March 19, 2007

From CNN

If the justices conclude Joseph Frederick's homemade sign was a pro-drug message, they are likely to side with principal Deborah Morse. She suspended Frederick in 2002 when he unfurled the banner across the street from the school in Juneau, Alaska.

"I thought we wanted our schools to teach something, including something besides just basic elements, including the character formation and not to use drugs," Chief Justice Roberts said Monday. [...]

"It sounds like just a kid's provocative statement to me," Justice David Souter said. [...]

The outcome also could stray from the conservative-liberal split that often characterizes controversial cases.

Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote several opinions in favor of student speech rights while a federal appeals court judge, seemed more concerned by the administration's broad argument in favor of schools than did his fellow conservatives.

"I find that a very, a very disturbing argument," Alito told Justice Department lawyer Edwin Kneedler, "because schools have ... defined their educational mission so broadly that they can suppress all sorts of political speech and speech expressing fundamental values of the students, under the banner of getting rid of speech that's inconsistent with educational missions."

Justice Stephen Breyer, in the court's liberal wing, said he was troubled a ruling in favor of Frederick, even if he was making a joke, would make it harder to principals to run their schools.

"We'll suddenly see people testing limits all over the place in the high schools," Breyer said.
On the other hand, he said, a decision favorable to the schools "may really limit people's rights on free speech. That's what I'm struggling with." [...]

What if, Souter asked, a student held a small sign in a Shakespeare class with the same message Frederick used. "If the kids look around and they say, well, so and so has got his bong sign again," Souter said, as laughter filled the courtroom. "They then return to Macbeth. Does the teacher have to, does the school have to tolerate that sign in the Shakespeare class?"

Justice Antonin Scalia, ridiculing the notion that schools should have to tolerate speech that seems to support illegal activities, asked about a button that says, "Smoke Pot, It's Fun."
Or, he wondered, should the court conclude that only speech in support of violent crime can be censored. "'Extortion Is Profitable,' that's okay?" Scalia asked.

A clear majority seemed to side with Morse on one point, that she shouldn't have to compensate Frederick. A federal appeals court said Morse would have to pay Frederick because she should have known her actions violated the Constitution.
More from Reuters

"It's political speech, it seems to me. I don't see what it disrupts," a sceptical Justice David Souter said.

"And no one was smoking pot in that crowd," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, referring to the group of students standing near the banner as the Winter Olympic torch relay passed by in January 2002. [...]

Justice Anthony Kennedy asked Kneedler if the principal could have required the banner be taken down if it had said "vote Republican, vote Democrat".

Kneedler replied the principal has that authority.

It'll be June or July before we have a decision.



Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of existence.
--Voltarine de Cleyre

[DdC]

Drug Warriors Push Broad Censorship of Speech By Jacob Sullum
CN Source: Town Hall.com March 20, 2007 Washington, DC  
When Joseph Frederick, a Juneau, Alaska, high school senior, unrolled a 14-foot banner proclaiming "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" at a 2002 Winter Olympics torch relay rally near his school, he was trying to attract TV cameras. Instead he caught the eye of Deborah Morse, the school's principal, who crossed the street, grabbed the banner, crumpled it up, and suspended Frederick for 10 days.
Continued...cannabisnews/22787

Precedent 4 Student Speech Editorial
CN Source: Washington Post March 20, 2007 Washington, DC  
What is a bong hit 4 Jesus? We're not sure, and we doubt anyone really knows what the phrase means -- which is one reason the Supreme Court ought not to regard it as prohibited speech. Joseph Frederick, the protagonist in a case the justices heard Monday, unfurled a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" across from his Juneau, Alaska, high school in 2002. His unamused principal ripped it down and suspended him.
Continued...cannabisnews/22786

Bong Hits For Jesus @ Yahoo!

Jesus saves with kind buds. Thank you Jesus for dank and heady nugs. Every year on Mardi Gras day, Alcoholics for Jesus gathers in Jackson Square to testify with all our Jesus loving friends. Come witness with us on Feb. 12th brothers and sisters! Let's save New Orleans, the city of sin.

Bong Hits For Jesus!
posted by Slutia on January 31, 2002 at 18:39:40 PT:

I am not sure if these guys got the slogan from our annual Mardi Gras counter protest (where we taunt the hundreds of self righteous fundamentalist bigots are bused in from the bible belt to try to bust up the party. They are given bullhorns with which they shout at people, telling them they are going to hell for wearing beads and other crazy slogans, and hateful signs stating that God hates fags and un-submissive wives.).

Last year there were hundreds of pictures taken of our protest, and the Yahoo! club has been around for about a year. I don't know if these guys borrowed the slogan, or came up with it independantly, but all I can say is Right On! If anyone would lika a BHFJ! T-shirt (perfect for getting sent home from school!), you can get them @ cafepress.com/bonghitjesus These T-shirts are sold at cost. Spread the word! Peace, Brian (That is me in the photo with the T-shirts BTW)

Our View on Freedom of Expression Editorial 
CN Source: USA Today March 20, 2007 Washington, DC 
Our view on freedom of expression: Protect student speech — even 'unwise' bong banner Precedent, common sense favor student in Supreme Court case. The 18-year-old high school student in Juneau, Alaska, who unfurled a "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" banner on a sidewalk across from his school when the Olympic torch passed by in 2002 says he was merely trying to provoke his school's strict principal and get himself on TV.
Continued...cannabisnews/22785

Opposing View: Policy Reflects Common Sense By Kenneth W. Starr
CN Source: USA Today March 20, 2007 Washington, DC 
One year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a decision that confounded school boards and administrators nationwide. A conscientious public high school principal enforced a longstanding student conduct policy against a student entrusted to her care. For that entirely appropriate action, the 9th Circuit subjected her to the prospect of punitive damages.
Continued...cannabisnews/22784

Bong Hits 4 Jesus By Dahlia Lithwick
CN Source: Slate March 20, 2007 Washington, DC 
We've come a long way since "Fuck the Draft." The history of free speech in America features a long proud march of embattled speakers pushing back against government authority. Whereas today's free-speech heroes pretty much just want to be zany enough for YouTube. In the old days, whether they were claiming that government workers were "God damned racketeers" (in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire); protesting the war in Vietnam with armbands (Tinker v. Des Moines) or foul words (Cohen v. California); declining to "live free or die" (Wooley v. Maynard) or asserting the controversial right to burn a flag (Texas v. Johnson) these folks had the courage of their convictions.
Continued...cannabisnews/22780

Up in Smoke At The High Court By Dana Milbank
CN Source: Washington Post March 20, 2007 Washington, DC  
So maybe this is why all those figures in the Supreme Court friezes are wearing togas. As Ken Starr told the nine justices yesterday why a student's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner didn't qualify as free speech, the whole bunch of them sounded one toke over the line. "So if the sign had been 'Bong Stinks for Jesus,' that would be . . . a protected right?" asked Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Continued...cannabisnews/22778

[Guither]

Thanks for those links, DdC

[Guither]

It's been fun getting visits from students who are studying this case. The Drug WarRant Bong Hits page is on the required reading list for a High School journalism class

[DdC]

Thanks Pete,
Very happy to hear the kids are hungry for truth and the bigger picture behind this fraud of a prohibition.

Free Speech doesn't seem so difficult to understand.
Even the mean ugly prohibitionists DEAth mongers should have the right to spout their chicken little bogeymen fabrications and manipulations. Easy enough to disprove them. Their only debate was censorship. Now we have a check and balance to their propaganda. The only surprise is that some diehards still insist on defying logic and common sense for a few lobbyest bucks for vested ignorance. Hoping for a miracle from the hatchet lawyers like Kenny Starrsearch and Cliarence Thomas, x Monsanto hitman.
Be Well and pass it on...
DdC

[DdC]

"They that start by burning books will end by burning men."
(German) "Dort, wo man BŸcher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen."
--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), from his play Almansor (1821)

Supreme Court Nixes 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus'  
CN Source: Associated Press June 25, 2007 Washington, DC 

-- The Supreme Court tightened limits on student speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his 14-foot-long "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

Joseph Frederick unfurled his homemade sign on a winter morning in 2002, as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Frederick said the banner was a nonsensical message that he first saw on a snowboard. He intended the banner to proclaim his right to say anything at all.

His principal, Deborah Morse, said the phrase was a pro-drug message that had no place at a school-sanctioned event. Frederick denied that he was advocating drug use.

"The message on Frederick's banner is cryptic," Roberts said. "But Principal Morse thought the banner would be interpreted by those viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is plainly a reasonable one."

Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Up in Smoke At The High Court

Students’ Right To Free Speech

"Parallel to the training of the body a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and simulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth... Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea."
--Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", Vol. 1, Chapter 10


njweedman

[DdC]

Sunday, June 24, 2007
Bong Hits for Jesus (updated multiple times)

Could be any day now for the decision in this Supreme Court case. Will it be a victory for free speech and the rights of students to have a life that isn't controlled by the schools? Will it be the beginning of a drug war exception to the first amendment and establish the right of schools to censor anything that doesn't fit what they determine to be the correct message? Or will it be something else entirely?

Note: For those who would like a quick refresher in constitutional law, read this funny piece by Walter Dellinger, wherein he is, sadly, able to boil down Supreme Court jurisprudence to its bare essence.

Further update: I was wrong (ScotusBlog was wrong for a moment as well, which is where I got my mistake). It's decided , and it's not great (but it's not really that bad, either).

Justices ruled that "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" was advocating illegal drug use, the unfurling of the banner was related to a school activity, and that the principal was in her rights to censor speech that advocated or "celebrated" illegal drug use. However, the decision was narrow...

Via ScotusBlog :

Morse is a very limited holding -- essentially limited to the drug context. The Alito concurrence, joined by Kennedy, is controlling. He writes:

I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that (a) it goes no further than hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use and it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as 'the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.'"

The opinion of the Court does not endorse the broad argument advanced by petitioners and the United States that the First Amendment permits public school officials to censor any student speech that interferes with a school's "educational mission." See Brief for Petitioners 21; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 6. This argument can easily be manipulated in dangerous ways, and I would reject it before such abuse occurs.

Speech advocating illegal drug use poses a threat to student safety that is just as serious, if not always as immediately obvious. As we have recognized in the past and as the opinion of the Court today details, illegal drug use presents a grave and in many ways unique threat to the physical safety of students. I therefore conclude that the public schools may ban speech advocating illegal drug use. But I regard such regulation as standing at the far reaches of what the First Amendment permits. I join the opinion of the Court with the understanding that the opinion does not endorse any further extension. ....

The Chief Justice's opinion, too, indicates that the case would have come out differently if the banner had "convey[ed] any sort of political or religious message," such as that involved in "political debate over the criminalization of drug use or possession," rather than (in the Court's view) mere "student speech celebrating illegal drug use." Debate, political and religious messages -- protected. "Celebration" of illegal activity (drug use, anyway) -- no go. That's the upshot.

The fact that the court specifically said that it does not support restriction of speech "on issues such as 'the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.'" is an important victory. That protects the creation of SSDP chapters, etc.

The really odd thing about this case is that the Supreme Court of the United States of America has now apparently ruled that a bunch of guys in robes knows what the phrase "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" means, and that it specifically advocates illegal drug use.
Update: Justice Thomas' concurrence is odd and rather frightening. He doesn't believe that students have any free speech rights at all.

Breyer in his dissent in part, concurrence in part says that the Court should have ruled that the Principal wasn't liable for damages since she was acting in good faith, but that the Court shouldn't have ruled at all on the First Amendment issue.

Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg dissented:

I am willing to assume that the Court is correct that the pressing need to deter drug use supports JDHS's rule prohibit-ing willful conduct that expressly "advocates the use of substances that are illegal to minors." App. to Pet. forCert. 53a. But it is a gross non sequitur to draw from these two unremarkable propositions the remarkable conclusion that the school may suppress student speech that was never meant to persuade anyone to do anything.

In my judgment, the First Amendment protects student speech if the message itself neither violates a permissible rule nor expressly advocates conduct that is illegal and harmful to students. This nonsense banner does neither, and the Court does serious violence to the First Amend-ment in upholding--indeed, lauding--a school's decision to punish Frederick for expressing a view with which it disagreed. [...]

it is one thing to restrict speech that advocates drug use. It is another thing entirely to prohibit an obscure message with a drug theme that a third party subjectively--and not very reasonably--thinks is tantamount to express advocacy. [...]

To the extent the Court independently finds that"BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" objectively amounts to the advocacy of illegal drug use--in other words, that it can most reasonably be interpreted as such--that conclusion practically refutes itself. This is a nonsense message, not advocacy. The Court's feeble effort to divine its hidden meaning is strong evidence of that. [...]

Admittedly, some high school students (including those who use drugs) are dumb. Most students, however, do not shed their brains at the schoolhouse gate, and most students know dumb advocacy when they see it. The notion that the message on this banner would actually persuade either the average student or even the dumbest one to change his or her behavior is most implausible.

And check out this amazing passage in the dissent:

Reaching back still further, the current dominant opinion supporting the war on drugs in general, and our anti-marijuana laws in particular, is reminiscent of the opinion that supported the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when I was a student. While alcoholic beverages are now regarded as ordinary articles of commerce, their use was then condemned with the same moral fervor that now supports the war on drugs.

The ensuing change in public opinion occurred much more slowly than the relatively rapid shift in Americans' views on the Vietnam War, and progressed on a state-by-state basis over a period of many years.

But just as prohibition in the 1920's and early 1930's was secretly questioned by thousands of otherwise law-abiding patrons of bootleggers and speakeasies, today the actions of literally millions of otherwise law-abiding users of marijuana, and of the majority of voters in each of the several States that tolerate medicinal uses of the product, lead me to wonder whether the fear of disapproval by those in the majority is silencing opponents of the war on drugs.

Surely our national experience with alcohol should make us wary of dampening speech suggesting--however inarticulately--that it would be better to tax and regulate marijuana than to persevere in a futile effort to ban its use entirely.

Wow!

"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the street
but also to protect the public from harmful ideas."
Robert Ingersoll, then Director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in a column by Jack Anderson in the Washington Post, June 24, 1972, p. 31 (Ingersoll became the first director of the DEA in 1974)

[DdC]

US Supreme Court Rules No Free Speech for Students
WASHINGTON -- A divided U.S. Supreme Court gave schools new authority to restrict students' speech today, saying pupils can be punished for statements that an administrator reasonably interprets as promoting illegal drug use.
full story



Court Restricts Student Expression By Warren Richey
CN Source: Christian Science Monitor June 25, 2007 Washington, DC  
A high school principal did not violate the free speech rights of a student when she confiscated a 14-foot prank banner near school grounds during an outdoor school assembly. In an important First Amendment decision limiting student free speech, the US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that school administrators and teachers retain discretion to censor student speech that they believe may encourage illegal drug use.
Continued...cannabisnews/23121

100 YEARS OF "JUST SAY NO" VERSUS "JUST SAY KNOW"
by Jerome E. Beck, Dr. P.H.

Re-evaluating Drug Education Goals for the Coming Century

A particularly notorious example of this was the time Anslinger began to issue frequent press releases in 1935 that documented the horrible crimes committed by marijuana-intoxicated youth and/or addicts.

With headlines announcing "The New Narcotic Menace" and the "Crusade Against Marijuana," articles that contained remarkably similar accounts appeared in major newspapers and national magazines.

This was hardly surprising, in that mainstream media relied almost solely on the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) for their facts, figures, and requisite horror stories.
(Becker 1963).

The success of Anslinger’s efforts in this particular instance was found in the smooth passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 by Congress.
(Dickson 1968; Morgan 1981)

Ruling Bong Hits Out of Bounds By Reynolds Holding
CN Source: Time Magazine June 25, 2007 Washington, DC  
You can almost hear the egg sizzling in the skillet (your brain on drugs, remember?) while reading Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion undermining student speech rights. The ruling reads like nothing so much as a goofy TV ad denouncing pot, but in the end, Roberts gets it about right when he says the case of the kid suspended for unfurling a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner across from school "hardly justifies sounding the First Amendment bugle."
Continued...cannabisnews/23120

"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly . . . [However, now] there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it."
--US President Bill Clinton

High Court Upholds Student's Suspension By Bob Egelko
CN Source: San Francisco Chronicle June 25, 2007 Washington, DC 
A divided U.S. Supreme Court gave schools new authority to restrict students' speech today, saying pupils can be punished for statements that an administrator reasonably interprets as promoting illegal drug use. The 5-3 ruling is likely to have little effect in California, however, because state law contains strong protections for free speech on campus.
Continued...cannabisnews/23119

Self Perpetuating Lies
President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981. Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

"...somebody has to take governments' place, and business seems to me to be a logical entity to do it."
--David Rockefeller - Newsweek International, Feb 1 1999

The 2002 (SAMHSA) report, "Alcohol and Drug Services Study Cost Study,"
The average cost for out patient treatment $1,433.00
Residential treatment $3,840.00 per admission...

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
--Upton Sinclair

U.S. Drug Czar Urges Random Student Testing By Andrew Maykuth
CN Source: Philadelphia Inquirer June 20, 2007 Philadelphia, PA
The nation's drug czar came to Philadelphia yesterday to draw a link between teen violence and drug use - especially marijuana - and urged schools to embrace random student drug testing. Venturing to a city with one of America's highest murder rates, John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said young substance abusers were more likely to engage in violence and to join gangs.
Continued...cannabisnews/23099

Body Count: Kids Who Kill ARTICLE: BC 01/02 97
Moral Poverty . . . and How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs
By William J. Bennett, John J. Dilulio, and John P. Walters
Simon & Schuster 271 pp
Predicted wave of 'predators' fuels debate on stricter drug laws ...
The book was condemned as inaccurate and alarmist ...

Ex-Theorist on Young 'Superpredators,' Bush Aide Has Regrets By ELIZABETH BECKER
New York Times February 9, 2001 PHILADELPHIA
From his perch as the director of the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which he believes will help uplift many needy people but particularly the most troubled teenagers, John J. DiIulio Jr. conceded today that he wished he had never become the 1990's intellectual pillar for putting violent juveniles in prison and condemning them as "superpredators.

America’s Newest Drug Pusher John P Walters

The federal government spent $11.7million to test nearly 29,000 workers in 1990. Only 153 employees flunked, putting the cost of finding each user at $77,000,
The ACLU Tallahassee Democrat (FL) May 7, 2003

The Assassins of Youth...DARE the FRCn PDFA!
Kill DARE Now
Drug Policy Harms Youth
Teens More Likely To Try Ganja After DEAthreats
Ganja School Text



Court Tightens Limits on Student Speech By Charles Lane
CN Source: Washington Post June 25, 2007 Washington, DC  
The Supreme Court affirmed wide authority for school administrators to regulate students' speech today, allowing principals to punish pupils who make any in-school speech or demonstration that may "reasonably be viewed" as promoting illegal drug use. The finding came in a case in which a Juneau public high school teacher gave Joseph Frederick a 10-day suspension for unfurling a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the school was gathering outside to watch the Olympic Torch Relay pass in 2002. Joseph, who has since graduated, sued the suspension was a violation of his constitutional right to free speech.
Continued...cannabisnews/23118

"A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth that is what I am after... I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men."
Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation"



Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

American Civil Liberties Union: Free Speech
Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action to protect the right to free speech.

The Free Speech Movement (FSM) Digital Archives

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy
1623 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-4414 | Fax: (202) 293-8344

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
--Albert Einstein

[DdC]

Daily Show Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Jon Stewart, showing the banner Joseph Frederick held up on that snowy day at the Olympic torch relay, along with video of the large Olympic torch...

"If Jesus had a bong, that is totally the lighter that He'd use."

Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Freedom of Expression Takes a Bong Hit By Debra J. Saunders
CN Source: Town Hall.com June 26, 2007 Washington, DC  

In its 1969 Tinker decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an Iowa public school could not expel students who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War because students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a muddled ruling -- with four justices agreeing, one partially agreeing and three dissenting -- that restricts those free-speech rights, even outside the schoolhouse gate.
Continued...cannabisnews/23126



Court Backs School On Speech Curbs By Charles Lane
CN Source: Washington Post June 26, 2007 Washington, DC  

The Supreme Court yesterday gave public schools new authority to regulate what students say, allowing principals to punish speech or demonstrations that may "reasonably be viewed" as promoting illegal drug use.

In its most significant ruling on student speech in almost two decades, the court said that the principal of a high school in Juneau, Alaska, did not violate senior Joseph Frederick's constitutional right to free speech when she suspended him for unfurling a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as students waited for the Olympic torch relay to pass their school in 2002. A bong is a water pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana.
Continued...cannabisnews/23125

"It doesn’t matter if the banner said ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus"

Kenneth Starr, continuing to put his considerable might behind things that are of vital importance to the nation brings this case before the Supreme Court. He will make it about drugs and dirty hippies, it is really about free speech.

American High Society

Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?



Student suspended after voicing marijuana opinion

‘Bong Hits’ Sign Ruling Chimes a Silly Tone By Cynthia Oi
CN Source: Star-Bulletin June 27, 2007 Washington, DC  

About the only thing amusing in the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case is imagining that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court may have had to utter the phrase repeatedly before issuing the 5-4 ruling that squeezed off another breath of free speech.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall as Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito rolled up their sleeves to bat around the definition of "bong" first as a noun, then as a modifier of "hits" and conclude that their attachment to "4" and "Jesus" constituted an undermining of school officials' efforts to educate students about illegal drugs.
Continued...cannabisnews/23130

'Bong' Decision a Wise One By Claude Lewis
CN Source: Philadelphia Inquirer June 27, 2007 Washington, DC  

Among a slew of late-term U.S. Supreme Court decisions, there was at least one with which I found myself in agreement.

In the case Morse v. Frederick, an Alaska high school principal had decided to bar student Joseph Frederick from school for 10 days for waving a 14-foot banner emblazoned with this enigmatic message: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Frederick had unfurled the banner as the Olympic Torch passed through Juneau in 2002.
Continued...cannabisnews/23129

Justice Stevens Calls On History He Lived By Charles Lane
CN Source: Washington Post June 27, 2007 Washington, DC  

Justice John Paul Stevens, the third-oldest person ever to sit on the Supreme Court, turned 87 on April 20. If he's still on the court 142 days from now, he'll overtake Roger B. Taney, who died as chief justice in 1864 at the age of 87 years 209 days.

Stevens still has a long way to go if he wants to catch Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who was 90 when he retired from the court in 1932. But he has already started invoking his considerable life experience to buttress his opinions.
Continued...cannabisnews/23128

Editorial: A Less-Than-Banner Ruling
CN Source: Washington Post June 27, 2007 Washington, DC  

The Supreme Court fractured on a case involving student speech rights this week. The result was not good for First Amendment freedoms on campus.

In 2002, then-high school senior Joseph Frederick unfurled a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" during a school-sanctioned event across from his Juneau, Alaska, campus. His principal promptly tore it down and suspended the student.
Continued...cannabisnews/23127

‘Pro-Pot’ Speech By Students Not Constitutionally Protected, Supreme Court Rules
CN Source: NORML June 28, 2007 Staff onWashington, DC, USA



"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."
--Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

Anti-pot propaganda 14 Mar, 2005
US feds are addicted to making up fake anti-pot news.

How The Canadian Media Import Counterfeit News From The States.
The Drug Czar Lies and Even The Best Papers Don?t Check the Facts.
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2005-03-17 16:20:00
Source: ?But it is time to acknowledge that the nation's news organizations have played a large and unappetizing role in deceiving the public?.?? The New York Times
Read Full Story... Continued...marijuananews/797

Front Page Fantasy: The New York Times Pushes Fact Free Journalism
Supposedly About ?BC Bud?
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2005-03-17 16:20:00
Source: This article was cited in the Canadian Parliament as proof that Canada cannot even decriminalize cannabis because of US opposition, ?causing costly cross-border delays.? Lies have consequences, which is why people lie.
Read Full Story.. Continued...marijuananews/796

Istook the Constitution and set it on fire.

Omnibus Bill Muzzling Drug Reform Advocates’ Free Speech Passes House
December 11, 2003

"REVOLUTION, n. A bursting of the boilers which usually takes place when the safety valve of public discussion is closed."
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary (1906)

Clinton Asks Supreme Court To Overturn MMJ Ruling By Bob Egelko
CN Source: San Francisco Examiner July 29, 2000

The Clinton administration wants the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that would make medical marijuana available to seriously ill patients in Oakland, saying the ruling would flout the will of Congress and undermine federal drug laws. The ruling last September by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which opened the door for distribution of marijuana in cases of "medical necessity," was "directly at odds with Congress' express finding that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use," the Justice Department said in papers filed with the high court.

Drug Warriors Try to Censor their Opponents

Banned in Boston - Reason Magazine

Amendment To 'Meth Bill' Would Censor Information!

Censoring Med Marijuana Information Helps No One

Censorship Gets Derailed

Move To Penalize Drug Views Amounts To Censorship

"Restriction on free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions.
It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
-- William O. Douglas

House of Reps. Approves Bill To Censor Americans

The Motion Picture Association of America agreed to ban any mention
or reference to marijuana and all public schools were forbidden to discuss the issue.

Court Rejects DEA Press To Censor Doctors



The Police State

The Drug War: Suppression Tactics Will Never Work

From the very beginning, official exaggerations hold an honored place in the government mendacity hall-of-fame. During the Nixon administration when the program first needed a worthwhile enemy, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs decided that for every known addict there were four unknown and, a year later, seven unknown, causing the ``official'' number of addicts to rise from 68,088 to 559,000 in only two years.

Along with the manipulation of statistics, the drug war has waged a vigorous campaign to elevate drugs in the public consciousness from a behavioral and psychological concern to a major national depravity. These essentially natural products that have been with us for history have suddenly become evil incarnate - the 20th century snake in the American Garden of Eden. There is reason to believe much of the purple prose about the horrors of drugs may be as suspect as the bureaucratic guesstimates of addict numbers.

Cannabis Report Challenges `Zero Tolerance' BY CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
Published: New York Times March 19, 1999

Pot report challenges `zero tolerance' Government study undercuts premise of national policy.



HASHISH FUDGE by Steve Abrams

Soma and the Wootton Report

 In 1967 my organization Soma published a full paged advertisement in The Times which called for reform of the law on cannabis. Sixty-five people were persuaded to sign this document, including leading figures in the arts and sciences and eminent medical men. our proposals for reform stopped short of outright legalization. However, legalization was clearly a long term prospect if they were implemented. The advertisement declared the existing law "immoral in principle and unworkable in practice."

Paul McCartney on Cannabis
The Soma Advertisement and the Wootton Report Extract from Chapter Nine - The Walrus Was Paul Of Paul McCartney's authorised biography Many Years from Now by Barry Miles

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

Mon$anto'$ WoD on Ditchweed

Mansonto, Cliarance & Conflicts of Ignorance... 

Monsanto's Cliarence

[DdC]

Quandaries 4 Justices By George F. Will
CN Source: Washington Post July 01, 2007 Washington, DC

In January 2002, in Juneau, Alaska, Joseph Frederick had the sort of idea that makes a teenager seem like one of nature's mistakes. Last week, after five years and the attention of 13 federal judges, Frederick became a footnote in constitutional history.

His case illustrated how the multiplication and extension of rights lead to the proliferation of litigation. It also illustrated something agreeable in a disagreeably angry era -- how nine intelligent, conscientious justices can civilly come to strikingly different conclusions about undisputed facts.
Continued...cannabisnews/23143



Saturday, June 30, 2007
Images of drugs can be political speech
Link

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of this ruling:

A seventh-grader from Vermont was suspended for wearing a shirt that bore images of cocaine and a martini glass--but also had messages calling President Bush a lying drunk driver who abused cocaine and marijuana, and the "chicken-hawk-in-chief" who was engaged in a "world domination tour." [...]

Williamstown Middle School Principal Kathleen Morris-Kortz said the images violated the school dress code, which prohibits clothing that promotes the use of drugs or alcohol.

An appeals court said the school had no right to censor any part of the shirt.

This is good news in the context of the Bong Hits decision, as it verifies that schools are restricted from censoring political speech, and that images of marijuana leaves, for example, when used in political context, are political speech, not a promotion of illegal activity.

This was an issue for me a few years ago, when the residence halls at Illinois State University denied permission to distribute flyers for hempfest because of the presence of a hemp leaf on the flyer.



Friday, June 29, 2007
Fun with the Lord's Bong Hits

First: Bong Hits 4 Jesus - the game. The trick here is to guess not which ones you should suspend a student for, but which ones you are allowed to suspend a student for/censor, based on the recent Supreme Court decision. Can you get a perfect 23/23 score? (How many times does it take you to do it?)

[Via Dare Generation Diary and RedAphid.com Just wondering... If you were a High School student with some extra cash, and there was a billboard on private property facing your school (and visible from school windows), and you rented it and put up "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" on the billboard...

The Sac Bee has a cartoon...

[DdC]

Bong Hits 4 Jesus

"Today's Decision Would Make George Orwell Proud"
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Vote to Rewrite the Nation's Media Ownership Rules (12/07)

Censorship, Inc.: The Corporate Threat to Free Speech in the United States
by Lawrence Soley (Author)
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a landmark in the defense of free speech against government interference and suppression. In this book we come to see how it also acts as a smokescreen behind which a more dangerous and insidious threat to free speech can operate.

Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation
(Issues & Debates) by Robert C. Post



FCC Votes for Monopoly, Congress Must Vote for Democracy
John Nichols Tue Dec 18, 2007 The Nation
The Federal Communications Commission has, as expected, voted along party lines to approve the demand of Rupert Murdoch and other communications-industry moguls for a loosening of limits on media monopolies in American cities.

FCC Approves Rewriting of Media Ownership Rules
By a 3-to-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission voted on Tuesday to relax the rules for companies seeking to own both a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city. FCC Chair Martin pushed the vote despite widespread opposition from lawmakers and the general public.



Related Democracy Now! coverage:

Interview with Craig Aaron of Free Press

Interview with FCC Commissioners Adelstein and Copps

FCC Chair Kevin Martin Refuses to Delay Vote on Proposed Rewrite of Media Ownership Rules

Democracy Now



Is junk media making you sick??? By Free Press

Pulling out all stops to prevent the FCC from gutting media ownership limits
If you or your constituents want to be part of the fight to stop Big Media, the clock is ticking.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin plans to call a vote at the FCC's monthly meeting tomorrow on his proposal to allow more media consolidation. Hundreds of national, state, and local organizations are mobilizing to turn up the heat on Martin to cancel the vote and establish a fair process for public input. We need to deal with crucial issues of localism and minority media ownership before considering any new rules.
But Martin seems to be done listening to the public, so our main pressure point right now is the Senate's bipartisan Media Ownership Act of 2007 (S. 2332).

Media Minutes is the longest-running syndicated radio program of its kind focused on media policy and reform. Media Minutes tracks the latest industry developments, keeps an eye on Washington policy-makers, and talks to the experts and activists dedicated to changing our media environment for the better.

A full archive of all Media Minutes programs from 2004 can be found here



Bio Liberty: Energy Is Freedom

Orwell Rolls in His Grave provides a vital forum for ideas that will never be heard in mainstream media.

FSTV schedule for the program.

Free Speech TV

INN World Report



Ganjawarnews.Ganjawareness 1.1.8

The Times They Are a Changin" - BACKWARD's!

The FCC, (Fascists Communication Censors)
and relgio-politicops,
have been trying to ban Ganja talk,
on the net since it's inception.
Naturally to protect the kids.
Both sides of the coin.
Frankenfeinstein and Oral Hatchet...
Now the latest FCC conglomeration deal
leaves books and the net to get the words out.
57 channels all owned by Rooppy Murduck
General E, Mickey Mouse Viacommie/Westinghouse.

Bush still pushing to widen the Pat-riot Ax.
Drug thugs running out of new lies, fast.
Mucho denero underground growing...
Merging Mexamericanada for the New Weird Odor.
Banksters still collecting interest on the trillions of debt.
The Great Depression didn't hurt the rich.
This one won't either.
Everybody working for the government.
Citizens give up their rights for profit sharing.

Po folks need "protection"
with less disobedience from desperation.
Less whining about wages or whistle blowing.
Homeless deterrents reminding us not to question.
Speaking out on taboo's, used to get a free hemp necktie party.
Now it's D.E.A.th Row by lethal injection from a licit substance.
Racists caging slave labor, racism popular as ever.
Paying minimum wages is cheaper,
than room and upkeep for slave laborers.
Jim Crow can rest a spell, Diebold's counting the votes.

Back, to back when those commies kept us quiet,
only sympathizers would even ask why.
McCarthy and Ronnie Rayguns.
Georgy Bush Sr. always lurking in the background.
Korea, Dyncorps, CIA through JFK, Anslinger and lady Edgar.
LBJ, Nexxon, Watergate, 10 for 2 in Michigan,
Ford hiding tumor research, funding monkey euthanasia.
Carter and then a double dose of Ronnie Rayguns.
Georgy Bush still lurking in the background.
Then 4 years at the helm swiftboating Dukakis.
Kills the IND program for Rx Ganja.



Retrieved a few things sold too Sadamn.
1 war and a thousand points of light.
All competing with Hemp and Ganja.
Then out of nowhere a Texas big eared billionaire Peron,
slides the contest to an unknown,
boy from ArKansas.
Place where the cocaine landed,
with Asa Hunchinson playing the part of the District Attorney.
Nice big happy Fascists family.
Carlyle, Enron, Haliburton spending the taxes.
Neocons don't mind tax so much,
when they're going into family pockets.

Double shot of Klintoon's dog and pony show.
Neocon lite, camouflaged in bleeding hearts.
NAFTA GATT, 10 million busted, inhaling or not.
More than anytime past, wrote the Pat-riot Ax.
2 mil in prison and under bridges,
many vets from his mentors oil skirmishes.
Then after atrocious records in Texas,
news stories and all sorts of warnings.
The governor, son of a bitch gets selected resident.

Now here we are wondering why,
the debt is 8 trillion and quagmires are breeding.
Plus interest, amounting to about what is needed,
to rebuild the levies and high schools, and infrastructure.
Ganja still tops the list of drug worrier hissyfits.
Most know it ain't really that dangerous.
Stats and theories ain't standing up.
98% of the plants are canvas and burlap.
Saving the kids or the Drug Czars fat ass?
Maybe better we don't hear about it... DdC