In the past three terms, the U.S. Supreme Court has told us again and again that the government may never punish people for the content of their speech. As interpreted by the Roberts Court, the Constitution protects even speech that is highly disturbing (videos of dogfights), that has detrimental effects on some audience members (ultraviolent video games), that is brazenly false (lying about having won military honors) or that is grossly offensive to basic human decency (anti-gay hate banners outside military funerals).
This First Amendment absolutism "Congress shall make no law" truly means "no law" only makes it more anomalous that millions of Americans are still denied a seat at the grown-up table of citizenship: students in public schools and colleges. Twenty-five years ago, the Supreme Court decided Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, a case that stripped away constitutional protection for students who use a "curricular" means of communication (in that case, a high school newspaper).
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