Where does that leave students who condemn abortion or homosexuality, question evolution or insist on the importance of Holy Scripture in resolving moral issues? The question does not seem to trouble the Bush administration, for which hostility toward civil liberties is a more consistent theme than friendliness toward the religious right. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler told the Supreme Court a school "does not have to tolerate a message that is inconsistent" with its educational mission.

Justice Samuel Alito called this argument "very, very disturbing," noting that schools could suppress a wide range of speech "under the banner of getting rid of speech that's inconsistent with educational missions." That banner is even vaguer than "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

When it ruled that confiscating Frederick's banner violated the First Amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said censorship of student speech is not justified "in the absence of concern about disruption of educational activities." No one claims Frederick, who displayed the banner at a school-approved but privately sponsored event on a public street, was preventing students from learning.

Yet according to Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom The New York Times alarmingly describes as "perhaps the most speech-protective of the justices," the banner was "completely disruptive" because it contradicted "the message the school wanted to promote." Kennedy, the Times reports, is "highly pro-government on issues involving illegal drugs."

Presumably, then, Kennedy also would take a dim view of a message such as "Legalize It." How strange it would be if students had a constitutional right to wear armbands protesting the Vietnam War, as the Court has held, but did not have a constitutional right to wear T-shirts protesting the war on drugs.