Burnside v. Byars (5th Cir. 1966) protected students’ First Amendment
rights on school grounds. The decision served as a key precedent for Tinker
v. Des Moines (1969).

Protests on campus raise an interesting array of First Amendment issues and challenges.  Students at a public college or university have a right to protest peaceably on campus subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on speech.   This means that students have a right to protest but universities can impose reasonable limitations on where

Healy v. James (1972) dealt with student groups at public colleges. The
Court affirmed college students’ First Amendment rights of free speech and
association.

Justice Clarence Thomas argued against granting qualified immunity to
university officials in a free speech case, but the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to take it up in Hoggard v. Rhodes.

Hosty v. Carter (7th Cir. 2005) applied a high school press censorship case
to the colleges. First Amendment advocates fear the decision will lead to
student speech censorship.

In Keefe v. Adams (8th Cir., 2016), a circuit court ruled that a public
college could expel a nursing student for Facebook posts that indicated a
lack of professionalism.

In L.M. v. Middleborough, 605 U.S. ____ (2025), two U.S. Supreme Court justices dissented from a denial of certiorari in a case from a Massachusetts middle school that restricted student speech.Student speech at stake in t-shirt caseThe case arose after the petitioner, Liam Morrison, designed as L.M., wore a shirt to a public middle school

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that
school officials violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a
cheerleader for her vulgar Snapchat post.

Melton v. Young (6th Cir. 1972) represents a time a court had to grapple
with the troubling question of the First Amendment and Confederate flag
clothing in public schools.

In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court ruled it is not a denial of First
Amendment rights for school officials to censor student speech they believe
encourages illegal drug use.

In a case involving two Native American students, Justice William Douglas
argued that the Supreme Court should settle the disputes in lower courts
over the constitutionality of hair regulations for students in New Rider v.
Board of Education, Pawnee County, Oklahoma.

Nurre v. Whitehead (2010) involved a student, who alleged her First
Amendment rights were violated when the band could not perform a religious
instrumental at graduation.

Free speech and free expression more generally can sometimes be hurtful, but absent findings of libel, slander, true threats or incitement to imminent lawless action, most such speech is protected by the First Amendment.  Approximately 450 U.S. colleges and universities have, however, adopted bias response teams that have been challenged on the basis that they