Brechner Project files brief on First Amendment rights of students

The Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project has filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Bell v. Itawamba County School Board.

The case involves the First Amendment speech rights of public high school students who post messages to social media sites while off campus, using their own communication devices and during non-school hours, yet who nonetheless are punished on campus by school authorities. 

"This is a constant, Orwellian problem of school officials trying to stretch their jurisdiction far beyond campus and into the homes and bedrooms of minors across the country," said Clay Calvert, Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication and director of the Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

At the heart of the brief is a request for more clarity from the court on student First Amendment rights.  As Professor Calvert writes in the brief: "This lack of clarity and uniformity detrimentally affects public school students, who currently do not have fair notice – a Fifth Amendment due process right addressed by this Court...."

The Court is expected to decide in Spring 2016 whether it will hear the Bell case.