In Landmark Free Speech Case, SCOTUS Rules Schools Can’t Police Social Media Posts Made Off-Campus
23rd June 2021
In a landmark decision on campus free speech, the Supreme Court today ruled in an 8 to 1 vote in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that students’ social media speech conducted off campus is protected by the First Amendment.
The high school student, identified as B.L. in the lawsuit, initially sued the Mahanoy Area School District after her school kicked her off the cheerleading squad due to a profane rant about school that she posted to Snapchat. B.L. made the junior varsity cheer team, not the varsity one, and used a four-letter word regarding her school in a Snapchat post expressing her frustration; she was off campus when posting the Snapchat on a weekend day. A lower court decided that the school overstepped by kicking B.L. off of the junior varsity squad, but the school district appealed.