Bong Hits 4 Jesus, Part Deux

Now that we've all turned in our write-on submissions and our vows of silence have ended, I can finally talk about the subject (for the first and last time). I wouldn't mention it if it wasn't so hilarious, but it is. So amusing that it caught my attention and I mentioned it here in January. Weird, huh?

In a nutshell: a kid held up a sign saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." School tears it down. There's all these disputes about whether the poster was at a campus event or not, if it was offensive, if it caused a disruption. We had to analyze if the school violated the student's First Amendment rights by ripping down the poster and suspending him 10 days.

The Supreme Court coincidentally heard oral arguments on this case as we were submitting our own decisions. It was on the front page of every news site: NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, and even BBC (I went to Fox News just for kicks, and they were the only one who didn't have it on the front page...odd, no?) And I read all the articles when I could. You would think that I would be so sick of reading about this, but I wasn't. I'm a nerd.

All that I will say is that reading these stately old Justices talk about "bongs" and "pot" is hilarious. This article has a compilation of some of the funny quotes, like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asking, "So if the sign had been 'Bong Stinks for Jesus,' that would be . . . a protected right?" Oh Ruth...

I predict, and hope like the NYTimes editorial, that the Supreme Court finds in favor of the kid. As stupid as the poster was, as against drugs as I am, and as fascist as I can be sometimes, there's a lot of reasons why you shouldn't censor kids for something like this (since I don't want to re-write my paper here, you can contact me if you want to discuss).

Like I said in January, I can't wait to see what happens. Especially now that I feel so much more personally invested. Oh Constitutional Law, why are you so fun?