Federal Judge: First Amendment Bars School's Ban on 'Hitler Youth' Badges

[beevul]

Federal Judge: First Amendment Bars School's Ban on 'Hitler Youth' Badges

Students cannot be prohibited from wearing buttons depicting a Hitler Youth assembly to protest a public school's mandatory uniform policy, a federal judge in New Jersey has ruled.

Issuing a preliminary injunction against the ban, U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. found that the students and parents would likely prevail in their suit alleging a First Amendment violation.

"Plaintiffs seek to exercise their First Amendment rights through expressive speech," Greenaway wrote Monday in DePinto et al. v. Bayonne Board of Education, 06-5765. "Defendants provide no evidence that the educative process will be disrupted or that the button will result in a failure in the discipline process."

"A student may not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason to believe that the speech or expression will 'materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school,'" Greenaway wrote, citing Tinker. Students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1190278978670&rss=newswire

This is good for everyone, IMO. If only more students, and people weren't so intimidated and/or authoritarian.