FIRE Summer Intern in California's 'Daily Journal'
August 24, 2006
by Chris Perez
The Los Angeles Daily Journal recently published a piece written by 2006 FIRE Summer Intern Michael Oberst. He discusses the 9th Circuit case Harper v. Poway Unified School District, in which a high school student was punished for wearing a shirt that expressed anti-homosexual sentiment. The court decided in favor of the school district, and in response Michael writes:
The Harper decision paves the way for blatant viewpoint discrimination in high schools across the nation, whenever the censored message touches upon issues that minorities hold dear. What members of the majority fail to understand is that, in the long run, members of historically unpopular or underprivileged minority groups have achieved legal equality in our society not by suppressing free speech but by vigorously exercising it. The 9th Circuit is doing these groups, and all of us, no favors.
