Law Update

Student speech that depicts violence continues to get close scrutiny in the courts.

Late last month, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declined to reconsider a decision involving expulsion of a high school student for a violent poem about a student shooting up his high school. But three judges on the San Francisco-based appeals court vigorously dissented from the full court's refusal to re-examine the case.

"First Amendment judicial scrutiny should now be at its height, whether the individual before us is a troubled schoolboy, a right-to-life activist, an outraged environmentalist, a Taliban sympathizer, or any other person who disapproves of one or more of our nation's officials or policies for any reason whatsoever," said U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt in his Jan. 29 opinion arguing...