The American Civil Liberties Union just won a Michigan court case involving religious expression in a school (in this case, a high school yearbook). At issue was whether a high school valedictorian would be allowed to use a Bible verse as a special quote for the yearbook (not the regular quote under her picture; one solicited by the school itself); the ACLU won an overwhelming victory. Quotes Kary Moss, ACLU head for Michigan:
“There are reasonable limits the schools can place, and potential for disruption is one reason a school might be able to limit certain speech,” Moss said.
Are my Righty colleagues annoyed, yet?
Well, don’t assume: they were fighting for the student’s right for religious expression, and they got the official yearbooks corrected after the fact, an agreement that students will not be censored in such a fashion in the future, mandated training of the school staff in 1st Amendment issues and ‘a letter of regret’, which probably means a ‘we’re admitting that we’re sorry in a fashion that won’t make us liable all over again later, and in a manner dictated by our attorney’. The full quote by Moss:
The settlement doesn’t set a court precedent, but it does provide an example, ACLU officials said.
“The Supreme Court has said there can be school oversight in official publications, but the schools still have to honor the constitutional rights of their students,” said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan.
Recently, the ACLU has taken on several cases involving students’ freedom of speech, including one involving a student who wore a T-shirt with a political statement and another who wore a T-shirt referring to anarchy, Moss said.
“There are reasonable limits the schools can place, and potential for disruption is one reason a school might be able to limit certain speech,” Moss said.
“But that wasn’t what happened here. This was a student’s personal views, which happened to involve religious expressions.”
Sorry about the heavy-handed subterfuge, but it never hurts to point out any lingering bias that might be out there. Mind you, I’m not always happy with the ACLU, but they’re no more agents of Satan than is, say, President George W Bush. We’re all bozos on this bus, folks.
(Via How Appealing, c/o Volokh)
But wait. Here we have the ACLU forcing a printer to print something she disagrees with profoundly.
I take your point though, Mr. Lane.
A Firesign reference! Well done, Moe!
I second the motion! (Now where’s that entrenching tool?) Meanwhile, Ezra, over at Pandagon, adds that Sean Hannity of all people once enlisted the ACLU’s support when his UCSB radio show was taken off the air for gay bashing. He won the case with their help.
Oddly, tho’, Sean doesn’t seem to bring this up much.
Good snare for the pre-lubed, Moe!
I haven’t financially supported the ACLU in many years (so many things to support!), but this year I’m considering it strongly.
In the longer view (maybe 50 years or so), the ACLU has turned out to be the leading edge of where the public will be further down the line. That’s a fine record.
The ACLU has been key in Oregon’s battle for equal protection under Oregon’s Constitution for gays and lesbians. I’m gonna give them some turkee soon.
Although I strongly support rigid separation of church and state, I think their call for upholding student’s personal religious views is good and appropriate (within some limits, I hope).
This freedom thing is kinda hard to get right, even after 200+ years. I like it that we still try.
Geez, Moe, don’t scare me like that — I just renewed my membership last night, and I wasn’t too keen on the prospect of regretting it less than 24 hours later.
Pappoon for President! Not Insane!