Right to Assemble

1. Right to Assemble By Michael Flax

2. Right to Assembly • May schools limit the time, place, and manner of student expression? Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

3. Right to Assembly • May schools limit the time, place, and manner of student expression? • Yes, as long as the time, place, and manner regulations are reasonable and nondiscriminatory. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

4. Right to Assembly • First Amendment jurisprudence provides that time, place, and manner restrictions on speech are constitutional if: • (1) they are content neutral (i.e., they do not treat speech differently based on content); • (2) they are narrowly tailored to serve a governmental interest; and • (3) they leave open ample alternative means of expression. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

5. Right to Assembly • Courts will generally grant even more deference to time, place, and manner restrictions in public schools because students do not possess the same level of rights as adults in a public forum. • However, the time, place, and manner of regulations must still be reasonable. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

6. Right to Assembly • This means that school officials could limit student distribution of material to certain locations and at certain times, but those regulations would need to be both reasonable and nondiscriminatory. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

7. Right to Assembly • Teacher’s First Amendment rights against the interests of the public school system. • If the teacher’s speech does touch on a matter of public concern, the court balances the teacher's right to free expression against the school district's interests in an efficient workplace. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

8. Teacher’s rights • If the teacher speech involves the curriculum or occurs in the classroom, most courts apply the more deferential standard in Hazelwood. • In fact, one federal appeals court even determined that the Hazelwood standard -- where any form of censorship must be reasonably related to a legitimate educational reason -- should apply to a teacher's in-class speech. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

9. Right to Assembly • May students form religious or political clubs in secondary public schools? • Yes, if the school allows other extracurricular (noncurriculum-related) groups. • Although schools do not have to open or maintain a limited open forum, once they do, they may not discriminate against a student group because of the content of its speech. Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

10. Right to Assembly • The Equal Access Act (EAA), passed by Congress in 1984 and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1990, makes it "unlawful for any public secondary school that receives federal funds and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings." Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

11. Right to Assembly • The EAA covers student-initiated and student-led clubs in secondary schools with a limited open forum. According to the act, "non-school persons may not direct, conduct, or regularly attend activities of student groups." Free Template from www.brainybetty.com

12. Work Cited • http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/assemblyfaqs.aspx • http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/faq.aspx?id=12993 • http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/faq.aspx?id=12812 Free Template from www.brainybetty.com