The Supreme Court case that I have decided to research was Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier was a Supreme Court case that asked the question, “Do schools have the right to
revise or change the contents of a student article for privacy or other reasons? And does it infringe their
1st Amendment right?” In this case, students at Hazelwood East High School wrote two articles featuring
subjects such as divorce and teen pregnancy (uscourts.gov). In this case, the principle of the school felt
that the girls’ privacy would be infringed, and the father in the divorce article would be displayed in a
biased way, so they decided not to publish the articles. The Supreme Court ruled 53 that the author’s 1st
Amendment right was not infringed …show more content…
This case differs from a similar court case known as Tinker v. Des Moines, where students
peacefully protested the Vietnam war by wearing armbands. While the case in Tinker v. Des Moines
didn’t cause any harm to other’s privacy, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier did. This ruling only caused more
discord between the writers and the courts, causing the case to go to The Supreme Court.
The majority decision of The Supreme Court was that the authors’ 1st Amendment rights were
not infringed upon due to the fact that what they were writing was biased and would have revealed private
facts about people, even with revision. The date that the majority decision was made was January 13th
1988. Justice White (joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor and Scalia) voted for the
majority opinion (caselaw.findlaw.com). The majority opinion was that the author’s rights were not taken
away due to the fact that the articles were inappropriate, and would not have been published due to the
fact that the articles infringed on the privacy of others, and a onesided article was written without the
consent of the subject being written …show more content…
But there are many different reasons to why work
may be edited to be deemed appropriate. Some schools may deem certain phrases or symbols
inappropriate, while some may even ban these symbols and phrases. But if it is against school policy for
these to be worn or said, then the students’ rights are not being taken away, since they go to the school
and must obey the rules set by the school they attend.
This case is still relevant to this day due to the fact that we should talk about what is appropriate
and inappropriate for a school setting. This case opened up the opportunity to talk about student’s work
being censored or even cut away from a school newspaper for being deemed inappropriate for a school
setting. The case allowed for the discussion about censorship in schools to expand, and to think about just
what is inappropriate; should it be decided by a board of people, or should it just be seen as inappropriate
by one person for it not to be published? And those questions are why this case is still
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier was a Supreme Court case that asked the question, “Do schools have the right to
revise or change the contents of a student article for privacy or other reasons? And does it infringe their
1st Amendment right?” In this case, students at Hazelwood East High School wrote two articles featuring
subjects such as divorce and teen pregnancy (uscourts.gov). In this case, the principle of the school felt
that the girls’ privacy would be infringed, and the father in the divorce article would be displayed in a
biased way, so they decided not to publish the articles. The Supreme Court ruled 53 that the author’s 1st
Amendment right was not infringed …show more content…
This case differs from a similar court case known as Tinker v. Des Moines, where students
peacefully protested the Vietnam war by wearing armbands. While the case in Tinker v. Des Moines
didn’t cause any harm to other’s privacy, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier did. This ruling only caused more
discord between the writers and the courts, causing the case to go to The Supreme Court.
The majority decision of The Supreme Court was that the authors’ 1st Amendment rights were
not infringed upon due to the fact that what they were writing was biased and would have revealed private
facts about people, even with revision. The date that the majority decision was made was January 13th
1988. Justice White (joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor and Scalia) voted for the
majority opinion (caselaw.findlaw.com). The majority opinion was that the author’s rights were not taken
away due to the fact that the articles were inappropriate, and would not have been published due to the
fact that the articles infringed on the privacy of others, and a onesided article was written without the
consent of the subject being written …show more content…
But there are many different reasons to why work
may be edited to be deemed appropriate. Some schools may deem certain phrases or symbols
inappropriate, while some may even ban these symbols and phrases. But if it is against school policy for
these to be worn or said, then the students’ rights are not being taken away, since they go to the school
and must obey the rules set by the school they attend.
This case is still relevant to this day due to the fact that we should talk about what is appropriate
and inappropriate for a school setting. This case opened up the opportunity to talk about student’s work
being censored or even cut away from a school newspaper for being deemed inappropriate for a school
setting. The case allowed for the discussion about censorship in schools to expand, and to think about just
what is inappropriate; should it be decided by a board of people, or should it just be seen as inappropriate
by one person for it not to be published? And those questions are why this case is still