Significance: In this case the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment does not protect a public-school student’s speech if it violates school rules against disruptive conduct.
Background: Matthew N. Fraser, a student at Bethel High School in Pierce County, Washington, used offensive language during a speech he made at school. The next day the assistant principal suspended him from school, and his name was removed from the list of potential speakers at that year’s graduation ceremonies. Fraser sued the school district, claiming that it denied him his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. He also claimed that the removal of his name from the graduation speakers list violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because he was unaware that his offensive speech could result in this kind of disciplinary action. A federal district court agreed with Fraser, and the school district appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Decision: This case was argued on March 3, 1986, and decided on July 7, 1986, by a vote of 6 to 3. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger spoke for the Court, which ruled in favor of the school district, thus reversing the decision of the federal district court. The Court judged that nothing in the Constitution prevents the states from punishing certain kinds of inappropriate expression; therefore, Fraser’s offensive speech was not protected under the First Amendment. Also, the Court held that the school district had not violated the Due Process Clause because Fraser knew of the school’s policy against inappropriate speech.
Excerpt from the Opinion of the Court: “Consciously or otherwise, teachers—and indeed the older students—demonstrate the appropriate form of civil discourse [speech] and political expression by their conduct and deportment [behavior] in and out of class. . . . The schools, as instruments of the state, may determine that the essential lessons of civil, mature conduct cannot be conveyed in a school that tolerates lewd, indecent, or offensive speech and conduct.”
