News & Analysis as of May 15, 2025

Public Schools

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The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary. less -

Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Nation’s First Religious Charter School

Rumberger | Kirk on 2/3/2025

On January 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court granted two petitions for certiorari in the cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond,...more

Ohio Senate Bill 206 Seeks to Expand School Discipline for Conduct on Social Media

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP on 1/17/2025

Ohio Senate Bill 206, (SB 206) introduced in 2024, calls for students who post threatening content on social media to be punished with expulsion from school for up to 180 days. The bill defines the proposed prohibited conduct...more

Navigating the Intersection of Religion and Public Schools

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 9/25/2023

Public school districts across the country face an October 1 deadline to certify they do not prevent constitutionally protected prayer — or else they could lose federal funding. The certification is an annual exercise,...more

U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Carson v. Makin Reconfirms Availability of Municipal Bond Financing for Religious Organizations

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP on 7/7/2022

Historically, the ability of a governmental conduit issuer to issue bonds to facilitate a financing for a religious organization or a religiously affiliated school, university, senior housing facility or other nonprofit...more

New Supreme Court Ruling Paves Way for State Funds in Religious Schools

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC on 6/30/2022

The United States Supreme Court holding in Carson v. Makin could result in public assistance for religiously affiliated institutions of higher education. The Court ruled that Maine’s tuition assistance program is an...more

SCOTUS Sides with Public School Football Coach Who was Disciplined for Praying After Games

Fisher Phillips on 6/28/2022

The SCOTUS recently ruled in favor of a public high school football coach who lost his job after praying in front of students at the 50-yard line following the school’s football games. The Court held that the coach did not...more

Five More Opinions and Justice Gorsuch Shows an Independent Streak: SCOTUS Today

Epstein Becker & Green on 6/23/2022

I’m currently in the wilds of Alaska, learning about the training of sled dogs. Nevertheless, word of the Supreme Court’s five most recent decisions has traveled northward. While none of these decisions is earthshaking, they...more

Supreme Court Decides Carson ex rel. O.C. v. Makin

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP on 6/22/2022

On June 21, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Carson ex rel. O.C. v. Makin, No. 20-1088, holding that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment prohibits a state from imposing a nonsectarian requirement to receive...more

Supreme Court Decision about Community College Raises Issues for Public Body Boards

Miller Nash LLP on 4/13/2022

Escalated tension, dissention, disagreement have been the new normal for school district and community college boards throughout the country. Censures and reprimands, once a little used arrow in the quiver of boards, have...more

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case of Former Football Coach Who Prayed on the Field after School District Told Him No

Franczek P.C. on 2/8/2022

In 2019, we reported on the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District involving a football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington state who was placed on administrative leave by his public school district for praying...more

The Supreme Court - January 18, 2022

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on 1/18/2022

Kevin George v. McDonough, No. 21-234: This case, involving an agency’s authority to interpret the statutes it regulates, presents the following question: When the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) denies a veteran’s claim...more

Three Point Shot - Summer Edition 2021

Proskauer Rose LLP on 8/5/2021

Welcome to Three Point Shot, a newsletter brought to you by the Sports Law Group at Proskauer. Three Point Shot brings you the latest in sports law-related news and provides you with links to related materials. ...more

Supreme Court Rules On Student Off Campus Speech: Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.

Husch Blackwell LLP on 7/16/2021

On June 23, 2020, in an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Mahanoy Area School District’s decision to suspend a student from the cheerleading team for posting vulgar language and gestures on social media (outside...more

PTAB Strategies and Insights Newsletter - June 2021: The Big F Word: The [F]irst Amendment

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 7/8/2021

Can our kids still curse about the misery of high school? The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that a school district violated a teenager’s First Amendment rights when school administrators suspended the teenager, B.L.,...more

June 2021: The Top 19 Labor And Employment Law Stories

Fisher Phillips on 7/7/2021

It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more

PTAB Strategies and Insights Newsletter - June 2021

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 7/6/2021

[co-authors: Patrick Murray, Risa Rahman, and Jae Bandeh] The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return...more

Supreme Court Weighs In On School Regulation Of Students’ Social Media Speech

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 7/6/2021

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Pennsylvania school district went too far when it suspended a student from participation in the school’s cheerleading squad based on “vulgar” comments made about the coach on the...more

United States Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Cheerleader Who Published Critical Social Media Post in Free-Speech Case

Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires &... on 7/2/2021

On June 23, 2021, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., the United States Supreme Court ruled a Pennsylvania school district violated the First Amendment rights of a cheerleader by disciplining her for her profanity-laden...more

Cursing Cheerleader Wins at Supreme Court, but Schools Retain Ability to Punish Certain Off-Campus Speech

Rumberger | Kirk on 7/1/2021

In the colorfully known “cursing cheerleader” case, the U.S. Supreme Court found a student’s school violated her First Amendment rights. In an 8-1 decision authored by Justice Breyer and decided Wednesday, June 23, 2021, the...more

SCOTUS and Social Media: What Employers Can Learn from the Court’s Recent Ruling about a Student’s Posts

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 7/1/2021

On June 23, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., No. 20-255 (2021), holding that a student’s off-campus social media posts critical of her school...more

Schools Must Revisit Rules About Off-Campus Speech In Light Of Supreme Court Ruling

Fox Rothschild LLP on 7/1/2021

The U.S. Supreme Court left many unanswered questions in its recent decision about the power of schools to punish a student’s off-color, off-campus speech. Although the justices ruled in favor of the student, they left the...more

“F--- school, f--- softball, f--- cheer, f--- everything,” Except First Amendment Protections for Student Speech

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 6/30/2021

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling in Mahanoy Area School District v. B. L., No. 20-255, (U.S. June 23, 2021), upholding students' free speech rights for the first time since 1969. In an...more

U.S. Supreme Court Rules that School Cannot Punish Student for Vulgar Social Media Posts

Clark Hill PLC on 6/30/2021

On June 23, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Mahoney Area School District (the “District”) v. B.L., et al (the “Student”), 594 U.S. ___ (2021). The District suspended the Student from the cheerleading team for an...more

Supreme Court Protects Off-Campus Speech of Public School Student

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,... on 6/28/2021

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 23, 2021 that a public high school student’s off-campus social media postings in which she used vulgar language and disparaged school programs constituted protected speech under the First...more

U.S. Supreme Court Holds that School Violated Cheerleader’s First Amendment Rights

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on 6/28/2021

Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B.L. holds that the First Amendment barred a public high school from taking disciplinary action against a student for vulgar speech that took place outside of school hours and away from the school’s...more

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