|
The New York Times
U.S.
Court Tosses Suit
Over School Speech
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, April 9, 2008
ASHLAND, Ky. -- A high school
student won't be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against his school district
for instituting a policy that barred him from expressing his opposition to
homosexuality, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote, said Boyd County High
School student Timothy Morrison failed to show that he was harmed by the policy
that was later changed.
Judge Deborah L. Cook, joined by Judge John R. Adams, also said Morrison didn't
show how winning a lawsuit seeking only $1 in damages would rectify his
situation. Judge Karen Nelson Moore dissented.
''This case should be over,'' Cook wrote. ''Allowing it to proceed to
determine the constitutionality of an abandoned policy -- in the hope of
awarding the plaintiff a single dollar -- vindicates no interest and trivializes
the important business of the federal courts.''
The ruling is a reversal of a previous ruling that held Morrison should be
allowed to pursue the lawsuit.
Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school
district over a policy that required students to undergo anti-harassment
training. He claimed the policy threatened him with punishment for
expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality. Morrison is a
professed Christian who believes his religion requires him to speak out against
what he sees as behavior that doesn't comport with his understanding of
Christian morality.
Morrison was never punished under the policy, which was later changed to exempt
speech that would normally be protected off campus.
The school district adopted the policy and established the anti-harassment
training as part of a 2004 legal settlement that ended a lawsuit between the
school district and a now-defunct gay-rights group that wanted recognition as an
extracurricular group.
Members of the Boyd County High School Gay Straight Alliance argued that the
school district violated their constitutional rights by refusing to allow them
to meet on campus.
Joel Oster, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian law group
that represents Morrison, didn't immediately return a telephone message left at
his Scottsdale, Ariz., office. Winter Huff, an attorney representing the
school district, didn't immediately return a call to her Somerset office.
Sharon McGowan, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which
supported the Alliance Defense Fund in arguing that Morrison should be permitted
to pursue his case, said the ACLU was disappointed by the decision.
|
