NEW YORK — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled in favor of a Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) client, reversing a lower-court decision and affirming that public-schools cannot punish students for off-campus speech, even if the speech is controversial.
The case, Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central School District, involved high-school student Case Leroy, who was suspended from school and all extracurricular activities after posting a controversial photo on social media outside of school hours and off school grounds. With HLLI’s help, Leroy sued the school district, arguing that the punishment violated his First Amendment rights. The district court ruled against him, holding that his post caused “substantial disruption” in school. Now, an appellate court disagreed, reversing the judgment and determining that the school violated Leroy’s free speech rights.
In the opinion, Judge Barrington Parker stated that “the school’s disciplinary actions violated the First Amendment,” adding that while schools may act to protect students from threats, “they cannot—and should not—protect the school community from hearing viewpoints with which they disagree or engaging in discourse with those who have offended them.”
Judge Myrna Perez agreed with the outcome and wrote a concurring opinion. She wrote, “Students must have room to engage in ‘unpopular expression’ without fear, but they should also learn that some speech is both constitutionally protected and corrosive to the goal of living well in a pluralistic democracy.”
HLLI Senior Attorney and lead counsel for the case, Adam Schulman, stated, “HLLI is pleased that the Second Circuit recognized the limits on American public schools’ authority to police students’ speech outside of school hours or off campus. As the court put it, learning to engage in civil discourse with those with whom we disagree really is ‘an essential feature’ of student education.”
HLLI argued that the school’s actions violated Supreme Court precedents in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) and Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021).
The ruling reinforces students’ free speech rights and that protecting offensive or unpopular speech remains central to the First Amendment.
The name of the case is Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central School District, 24-cv-1241 (2d Cir.).
For more information about this case, please see our case webpage or contact the attorney below:
Adam Schulman, Senior Attorney
(610) 457-0856, adam.schulman@hlli.org
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