Morse Vs Frederick Case Study

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The case of Morse Vs. Frederick had all began when a young man by the name of Joseph Frederick came up with the idea to hold a banner during a school sponsored event which stated the message “Bong Hits 4 Jesus,” relating to smoking marijuana. Prior to this situation, Joseph had been just a normal eighteen year old boy, attending Juneau-Douglas High School located in Juneau, Alaska. Then suddenly, in 2002 Frederick had found the right moment to get his chance on TV. What Joseph planned to do was, get some air time, just when the Olympic torch would be passing through his city. In addition to this, not only did Joseph Frederick want to be seen on TV, but he also wanted to create an act that no one will forget. So due to this, the banner was created, and leading this were a series of laws coming into effect towards Mr. Joseph Frederick. …show more content…
Frederick had been suspended for a total ten days. The reason being for this was because the principal of Juneau-Douglas High School named Deborah Morse had found that Fredericks statement written on the banner had pertained to promoting the illegal drug substance of marijuana. In addition to this, stated within the schools policy was that illegal drugs could not be promoted. From this false accusation that Frederick had taken into account, he then decided that he had the right to sue under the U.S. code of 42 U.S.C. 1983, which relates to freedom of speech. Once the district court had taken into effect what was going on, they had found no violation of the constitution and favored towards Deborah Morse. Therefore, what this shows is that Fredericks First Amendment right had been violated due to the favoring not being towards him, causing him to appeal and enter the Circuit