Thursday, July 1, 2021
Students' free speech
Schools must act carefully on students’ off-campus speech, Supreme Court rules
By Katy Harriger, Wake Forest University and The Conversation
"x x x.
For decades, U.S. courts have ruled that public school students “do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate,” as the Supreme Court said in 1968.
In that case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, the justices held that high school students who were suspended for protesting the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school were protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
The standard the court set then, which has been narrowed and focused over the years, was that schools could only punish students for speech that “materially and substantially” disrupted the educational mission of the school. In several subsequent cases, about a student campaign speech full of sexual innuendo, a school newspaper article on teen pregnancy and a student-created sign saying “Bong Hits for Jesus”, the Supreme Court evaluated speech or expression that took place on campus or at a school-sponsored event. And in every case, the justices deferred to school authorities on their judgment of what disrupted their educational mission.
A case the court took up this year provided an opportunity for a wider view, specifically about what protections students might have for speech they engage in off-campus and away from school events, including online.
School districts and officials were anxious for guidance about the extent to which they can police social media speech by their students, especially with heightened concern about cyberbullying and threats of school shootings.
Free speech advocates were worried about the extent to which schools can extend their reach and control over students outside of school grounds and hours, especially given the amount of time teens spend on social media.
The June 23, 2021, decision in that case, Mahanoy v. B.L., is both a win and a loss for both sides. The 8-1 ruling, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting, did not give either side the clear rules they may have wanted.
It says schools are not forbidden from disciplining students in cases of severe harassment and cyberbullying that happen outside school. But it does warn schools that their attempts to regulate off-campus speech will be treated with less deference than they would get when addressing events on campus.
A quick synopsis
The case centered on Brandi Levy, who was a high school sophomore in 2017 when she failed to make the varsity cheerleading team at Mahanoy Area High School. She did make the junior varsity team, but expressed her disappointment at not making the top squad through a crude Snapchat post involving raised middle fingers and multiple uses of the F-word.
She made the post over the weekend, from a location outside the school campus. Several members of the cheerleading squad saw the post and reported it to officials, who suspended her from cheerleading for violating team-conduct rules. Levy’s parents sued on her behalf, arguing under the First Amendment that the team rules were overbroad and unconstitutionally vague, and that the school had no authority over her off campus speech.
The federal district court that first heard the case concluded that Levy’s post did not create the sort of substantial disruption to education that the Tinker ruling’s standard demanded. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that Levy’s speech happened off campus and outside a school-sponsored event, so Tinker’s standard didn’t apply.
The school district appealed to the Supreme Court, noting that the appeals court ruling conflicted with other rulings around the country that had applied the Tinker precedent to off-campus speech.
The justices’ review
The Supreme Court agreed with both lower courts that the school had violated Levy’s First Amendment rights. But it disagreed with the appeals court’s reasoning that the Tinker case would not apply to off-campus speech.
In the majority opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the court “did not believe the special characteristics that give schools additional license to regulate student speech always disappear when a school regulates speech that takes place off campus.” At minimum, the ruling explains, schools must have the authority to regulate bullying, harassment, threats directed at staff or students, online learning and assignments and cybersecurity for school systems.
But the court also expressed reluctance to let schools very broadly regulate students’ off-campus speech, fearing the effect could be severe limits on student speech any time of day or night, in any location.
Instead, the justices said courts should be “more skeptical” of schools’ attempts to regulate off-campus speech than when handling on-campus expression.
The ruling also reminded schools of their obligation to protect the expression of unpopular opinion. Schools are “the nurseries of democracy,” Breyer wrote, and have an obligation to teach their students about the importance of free speech.
As a result of this reasoning, the court found that Levy’s Snapchat post was protected under the First Amendment. It was not substantially disruptive to the school environment, wasn’t targeted at anyone in particular, was not obscene, and did not constitute “fighting words” or incitement to violence.
Breyer did observe that Levy’s word choice was vulgar and perhaps juvenile in tone, but said “sometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary.”
As a result of the ruling, students don’t lose their rights when they enter through the schoolhouse gate – but neither do school officials lose all of their disciplinary power once students leave.
[Understand what’s going on in Washington. Sign up for The Conversation’s Politics Weekly.]
Katy Harriger, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
x x x."
See -
Schools must act carefully on students’ off-campus speech, Supreme Court rules (canadianinquirer.net)
Dual citizenship
A Filipino’s
guide to dual citizenship
By MICHELLE
ABAD
JUN 29, 2021
7:59 PM PHT
rappler.com
Dual
citizens can register to vote in Philippine national elections
For some
migrant Filipinos, the next step after acquiring permanent residency in their
new country is citizenship.
Some
countries’ laws require that once a person pledges allegiance to their flag, he
or she automatically loses any citizenship in a previous country.
Under the
Philippines’ Republic Act 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition
Act, natural-born Filipinos are allowed to retain or reacquire their Filipino
citizenship if they have been naturalized in other countries. The Filipino would
then hold two citizenships, and would be known as a dual citizen.
Among other
rights, dual citizens reacquire their right to vote in Philippine elections.
Since RA
9225 took effect in 2003, more than 150,000 had applied for dual citizenship
with the Bureau of Immigration (BI), according to 2018 data from the Commission
on Filipinos Overseas (CFO). Most of the applicants were Filipino-Americans.
Are you
looking to be a Filipino citizen again, maybe to vote in the next elections?
Here are the things you should know.
Who is
eligible for dual citizenship?
Dual
citizenship under RA 9225 is reserved for former natural-born Filipinos. As
defined by the 1987 Constitution, natural-born Filipinos are:
Persons who,
at the time of his/her birth, have at least one Filipino parent
Persons born
to a Filipino mother before January 17, 1973, who elected Philippine
citizenship upon reaching the age of majority (21 years old)
If you were
born outside of the Philippines, but your parents were Filipino citizens at the
time of your birth, then you are already a dual citizen by birth. You no longer
need to apply for dual citizenship under RA 9225.
Not eligible
for Philippine dual citizenship are persons who were naturalized Filipinos
before acquiring citizenship in another country.
What are my
rights as dual citizen?
Once you
acquire dual citizenship, you have the following rights in the Philippines:
Right to
vote in Philippine national and local elections (provided you also qualify
under the overseas voting law)
Right to own
land and property
Right to
engage in business
Right to
practice your profession (provided you are licensed or permitted by the Professional
Regulation Commission, or Supreme Court for lawyers)
Right to
travel bearing a Philippine passport
All rights
and privileges enjoyed by Philippine citizens (however, if you plan to run for
public office, you must renounce all foreign citizenship)
What are the
requirements for application?
The
Philippine post in your country of residence will require you to file your
petition for dual citizenship by filling up a form. The following documents
(original and photocopies) may be needed to retain or reacquire your Filipino
citizenship:
Birth
certificate issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
Latest
Philippine passport (if available)
Marriage
certificate (if married) issued by the PSA
With
annotation of divorce or annulment, if it applies
Decree or
judgment of dissolution of marriage (for divorced or annulled)
Death
certificate of spouse (for widowed individuals)
Naturalization
certificate
Foreign
passport
Recent
passport photographs with white background
Other
documents that would show the applicant is a former natural-born Filipino
You can
apply for PSA documents here. Philippine embassies or consulates may have more
specific requirements (like a certification from the Bureau of Immigration),
which you can check on their websites. Fees may apply for applying for
documents, as well as the application process itself.
Former
Filipino citizens would need to take an oath of allegiance before a duly
authorized Philippine official to get their citizenship rights back.
When
Filipinos take this oath, they are not required to renounce their allegiance to
any other country.
Can my
application include my family?
If you have
unmarried children below the age of 18, they can also derive Filipino
citizenship if you include them in your application.
If you have
a foreign spouse, they can become a naturalized Filipino citizen through
Commonwealth Act 473 or the naturalization law, but not through RA 9225.
Which
countries allow dual citizenship?
Not every
country has a policy that addresses dual citizenship directly. In the United
States, for instance, the law does not mention dual nationality or require a
person to choose one nationality over the other.
Meanwhile,
“places like China or Taiwan strictly construe citizenship – they only want
people to have one, so you have to give up other citizenship to get theirs,”
said Filipino-American immigration lawyer Jath Shao.
X x x.
Consult an
immigration lawyer or your Philippine consulate or embassy for further details
on whether you are eligible for dual citizenship in your current country.
X x x.
–
Rappler.com
See –