'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Rests in Supreme Court

Dygital Joe,

Good writeup- just wanted to expand on some things:

The First pertains to the government’s ability to restrict speech (hence the fact that the case was heard at all since public school is government indoctrination) and also protects “slanderous” speech (which is why libel/slander cases are heard in civil court) as well as speech “promoting substance abouse” (e.g. it’s legal to sell or wear T-shirts with pictures of marijuana/alcohol… for that matter it’s also legal to sell/wear a shirt that promotes any crime, including drugrunning and murder, for a example a Scarface shirt that shows a picture of a druglord firing an atuomatic rifle at other drug dealers).

The main issue is whether the Bong Hits 4 Jesus was appropriate for minors (who are obligated to attend school) to be exposed to this speech during their government-mandated school day. I think it’s appropriate that we allow this speech in this case, since (in theory, at least) devout Muslim students are exposed to many things at public school which would be considered offensive to their belief systems. Although to be fair, I’ll admit that this case wouldn’t have happened if the student had tried “Bong 4 for Muhammad [pbuh].”

The First Amendment protects the speech of those who say minorities are inferior (white supremacists) as well as that of those who call Jews evil “skunks” and “monkeys” (Louis Farrakhan). It even protects the controversial cartoons of Muhammad [peace be upon him]- although you’ll notice that the media and most Western government were quick to self-censor (compare to government funding through Rudy Guiliani and subsequent media lionization of such admittedly anti-Christian works as “Piss Christ”).

Hopefully this case will start some conversation among young people about consistency in interpretation of the Constitution. Unfortunately, we seem to live in a pick-and-choose society where some people will love the NRA for supporting certain parts of the Constitution but hate the ACLU for supporting certain parts of the Constitution; and vice versa. Hopefully the generation coming of age will realize that all values of the Constitution are vital to the health of the Republic; and all groups are equally worthy here. Hopefully they will realize that since no television show or movie would denigrate women, Blacks, or Latinos, that neither should any work denigrate Asians, Arabs, or Native Americans. Hopefully they will have the intellectual honesty and moral clarity to say “just as I abhor the thought of Judaism being marginalized; so too do I abhor the thought of Islam or Protestantism being marginalized.”

Well, we can hope, can’t we?