Short Memories on School Protests

At Live Oak High School, the story was never about the right to display the American flag. It was always about one thing: preserving something that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized at least three times in the last 30 years -- the authority of school administrators to maintain order and keep students safe.

That's why, as the Live Oak case continues to make it way through the courts, the teenage patriots will likely keep losing. The precedent is on the side of the school and its administrators.

This is the delicious part: While many conservatives, most notably those on cable or talk radio shows, eagerly took up the students' cause on free speech grounds, the cases that are working against the students in the courtroom were originally argued by -- wait for it -- conservatives.

Ironically, the one leg that the students have to stand on dates back to a case filed by liberals. In 1969, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court ruled that students who were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War didn't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

But since Tinker, the Supreme Court has repeatedly trimmed the First Amendment rights of students -- again with a push from conservatives.

It did so in Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986), in which the justices held that a high school student's speech during an assembly -- filled with sexual innuendo -- was not protected. It struck the same note in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), in which the justices held that schools could control the content of student newspapers. And, the court drove home that message again in Morse v. Frederick (2007), in which it held that school officials can restrict student speech at a school-sponsored event even if it is off-campus.

Conservatives do have short memories. What do they really believe anymore, and what are their guiding principles? I don't think even they know.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.