Politics High Court Takes “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”
posted by on December 1 at 15:09 PM
As if a lower court’s ruling and the Constitution aren’t already clear enough, the Supreme Court agreed today to step in to clarify a student’s right to free speech. In an appeal, Kenneth Starr will argue that the Juneau, Alaska school board was right to suspend a high-school student for promoting illegal drug use when he displayed a banner declaring “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” off school grounds. The student, who has been represented by the free-speech lovin’ ACLU, claims he just wanted the message to appear in the background of local TV news footage when they filmed the Olympic Torch passing though Juneau on its way to the 2002 Olympic Games.
Any level-headed American knows the 1st Amendment exists to protect such speech - no matter how inane - and it’s far too late for Jesus to do bong hits.
Funny story-
I'm originally from Alaska, and first heard this saying from a friend almost 10 years ago... It originated not to promote giving Jesus bong hits, but rather as a reason to smoke weed when no other excuse would suffice.
I suppose it came about from the great Alaskan weed, and way too much down-time on those dark winter nights...
Of course I also seem to remember the original saying as "Doing Bong Hits for Jesus", but you get the idea.
Wow. Seems like an open-and-shut case to me - the school was in the wrong. It's amazing - and totally fucked up - that the case has gotten this far.
And Ken Starr is a worthless sack of shit who has measurably made America a crappier place - now doesn't he have anything better to do than go after stoner high school kids? I normally don't like attributing the positions of a client to their lawyer, but he's working for free on this one, so...
I hold out a small chance this case will NOT get reversed. The current makeup of the court is such that the 9th Circuit (the most liberal in the country) gets reversed a lot.
It's a close call. And given the facts I'd go in the direction of the student. I don't see 5 justices going that way.
You sayin' Jesus didn't do bong tokes?
Jesus had long hair, wore a robe and sandals all the time, hung out hookers, and made his own wine. I'm sure he spent plenty of time on the pipe.
Hello? Walking on water? You just can't do that if you're not totally freakin baked. Seriously.
Besus I'm jaked.
Did anyone actually read about the case?
I practiced in the education law field. If this were a college kid, there would almost certainly be no issue. But in K-12, it's a different story. The schools have a pedagogical interest in correcting kids who engage in illegal behavior, and can even regulate some forms of speech that touch on illegal behavior. The line is usually whether it's on school grounds or during a school function. This was not on school grounds, but it was directly across the street from the school and, perhaps more importantly in this case, apparently happened during a school-chaperoned outing.
So this is not a case of the school reaching out and trying to slap down a kid who, totally on his own time and in his own space, held up a poster about bong hits. It's far more complex than that, and a decision in favor of the school would not be all that outrageous under the current state of First Amendment law.
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