JUNEAU, Alaska, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Alaska's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner case, involving questions of freedom of expression for public school students, may be headed back to trial court.
Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last term in the case, broadening a school district's right to restrict illegal drug promotion, a lawyer for a Juneau-Douglas High School student said his client still may sue for a violation of his free speech rights, The Juneau (Alaska) Empire reported.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, headquartered in San Francisco, which oversees Alaska and much of the West Coast.
The appeals court will look at the Supreme Court ruling, and then dismiss the student's case or send it down for trial.
The student and others raised the banner as a joke while the Olympic torch passed by. During a trial, the student's lawyer would argue that the message was not pro-drug -- and therefore not affected by the high court ruling -- but was in fact a protest relating to free speech, the newspaper said.
