Supreme Court rules for cheerleader punished by school for Snapchat expletives
23 June 2021
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Wednesday that a school district in Pennsylvania violated the First Amendment by punishing a cheerleader who used expletives in a Snapchat post while off campus.
Why it matters: The case pushed the boundaries of students' First Amendment rights and what schools can enforce outside school grounds, especially in the digital age.
Driving the news: The Court held that, "while public schools may have a special interest in regulating some off-campus student speech, the special interests offered by the school are not sufficient to overcome [the student’s] interest in free expression in this case."
- The ruling was written by Justice Stephen Breyer and only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
Catch up quick: When Brandi Levy, a Pennsylvania freshman, did not make the varsity cheerleading squad for her high school, she posted a vulgar message on Snapchat saying, "F school, F cheer, F softball, F everything,'" per ABC News.
- The school caught wind of Levy's message and suspended her from the team for a year, saying the punishment was necessary to "avoid chaos" and ensure a "teamlike environment," per The New York Times.
Flashback: In the landmark First Amendment case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District in 1969, the Supreme Court allowed students protesting the Vietnam War to wear black armbands, saying the students did not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” per the New York Times.
- The Supreme Court has limited students' First Amendment rights on school grounds since Tinker v. Des Moines, per NYT.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.