Shanley v. Northeast Independent School District
| Shanley v. Northeast | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit |
| Full case name |
Mark Stephen Shanley, by Next Friend, et al., v. Northeastern Independent School District, Bexar County, Texas, etc., et al. |
| Decided | June 9 1972 |
| Citation(s) | 462 F.2d 960 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) | Plaintiffs sought injunctive relief from school's sanctions, District Court found case "wholly without merit" and dismissed on own motion |
| Subsequent action(s) | expedited appeal |
| Holding | |
|
Unreasonable restrictions imposed by public schools on student expression is an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment; District Court reversed by 5th Circuit Appeals Court |
|
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | John Minor Wisdom, Irving Loeb Goldberg, Charles Clark |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Goldberg |
| Concurrence | Clark |
| Laws applied | |
| First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment | |
Mark Stephen Shanley, by Next Friend, et al., v.
Unreasonable restrictions imposed by public schools on student expression is an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment;
Shanley v. Northeast Independent School District was a United States Federal Appeals Court decision issued in 1972 that outlined the limited power and reach of a public school system to apply administrative sanctions against the speech or written expression of its students when produced and/or distributed off school grounds and outside school hours. The case involved the suspension of five high school seniors in the North East Independent School District of San Antonio, Texas. The students were accused of publishing an unapproved newsletter called The Awakening and disseminating it to students on a street nearby to the school grounds. The newsletter contained a statements advocating a review of marijuana laws, providing information about birth control, and other topics the school judged to be inappropriate and controversial. The principal suspended the five students for violating a school board policy which read,
...any attempt to avoid the school's established procedure for administrative approval of activities such as the production for distribution and/or distribution of petitions or printed documents of any kind, sort, or type without the specific approval of the principal shall be cause for suspension and, if in the judgment of the principal, there is justification, for referral to the office of the Superintendent with a recommendation for expulsion...
The students each ranked as "good" or "excellent" students, and the suspensions resulted in a substantial drop in their school scores, having a potentially significant impact on their college admissions. The North East Independent school board upheld the suspensions, and the parents of the students then sought both temporary and permanent injunctive relief in the federal courts. A Texas district court denied all relief and dismissed the plaintiffs' case on its own motion, judging the case to be "wholly without merit". The district court also refused the plaintiff's request for injunction until an appeal could be heard. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals expedited the appeal and itself issued an injunction against the school to preserve the students' academic records while the appeal went forward.
...
Wikipedia