Supreme Court Clarifies Bong Hits 4 Jesus by Refusing a School Speech Case
Following its ruling against a student displaying a banner reading “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS,” The United States Supreme Court further clarified its ruling by refusing to hear a school speech case. In this case, according to CBS News, Zachary Guiles was banned, in 2004, from a school trip to Vermont statehouse when he refused to remove his t-shirt “bearing images of cocaine and a martini glass — but also had messages calling President Bush a lying drunk driver who abused cocaine and marijuana, and the ‘chicken-hawk-in-chief’ who was engaged in a ‘world domination tour.’”
Assistant Principal Seth Marineau told Guiles the shirt violated the school’s policy against images of drugs and alcohol. Guiles told CBS that the drug and alcohol images “were entirely negative. . . . It was pointing out the inadequacy of the president, certainly not promoting them (drugs) in any way, shape or form.”
Unlike in the Bong Hits case, the Guileses argued that the message of the boy’s t-shirt was political opinion regarding the president. The Bong Hits banner delivered no political message, if any message at all.
