High School Cheerleader Loses Speech Suit Over F-Bombs in Tweets - Bloomberg Law

November 05, 2019 at 03:07AM

The law regulating off-campus speech wasn't clearly established at the time a high school's head varsity cheerleader was booted off her squad for posting profanity-laced tweets, and thus the school district is immune from her First Amendment suit, the Fifth Circuit said Nov. 4.

Shortly after M.L. was named head cheerleader, she and her mom, Zulema Longoria, were called into the coaches' office and told she was being removed from the squad. They had found a number of posts on her Twitter account using sexual innuendo and the words f--- and b----, which they said violated the Cheerleader Constitution.

School administrators and the school district backed the coaches, and M.L. and her mom sued, claiming they violated her First Amendment rights. The district court said the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity.

Looking at precedent regulating off-campus speech, the appellate court opinion by Judge Stephen A. Higginson said even if M.L.'s right to free speech was violated, "much of our law on the boundaries of off-campus speech remained unclear" at the time she was dismissed from the cheerleading team.

Outlining general guidelines for the future, however, the court said non-threatening off-campus speech is protected by the First Amendment and can't be disciplined just because an administrator considers it profane, harassing, or disruptive. Speech that isn't intended to reach the school community is also outside the reach of school officials, it said.

Judges Carolyn Dineen King and Stuart K. Duncan joined the opinion.

Walsh Gallegos Trevino represented the defendants. Stapleton & Stapleton represented M.L.

The case is Longoria v. San Benito Indep. Consol. Sch. Dist., 5th Cir., No. 18-41060, 11/4/19.

The law regulating off-campus speech wasn't clearly established at the time a high school's head varsity cheerleader was booted off her squad for posting profanity-laced tweets, and thus the school district is immune from her First Amendment suit, the Fifth Circuit said Nov. 4.

Shortly after M.L. was named head cheerleader, she and her mom, Zulema Longoria, were called into the coaches' office and told she was being removed from the squad. They had found a number of posts on her Twitter account using sexual innuendo and the words f--- and b----, which they said violated the Cheerleader Constitution.

School administrators and the school district backed the coaches, and M.L. and her mom sued, claiming they violated her First Amendment rights. The district court said the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity.

Looking at precedent regulating off-campus speech, the appellate court opinion by Judge Stephen A. Higginson said even if M.L.'s right to free speech was violated, "much of our law on the boundaries of off-campus speech remained unclear" at the time she was dismissed from the cheerleading team.

Outlining general guidelines for the future, however, the court said non-threatening off-campus speech is protected by the First Amendment and can't be disciplined just because an administrator considers it profane, harassing, or disruptive. Speech that isn't intended to reach the school community is also outside the reach of school officials, it said.

Judges Carolyn Dineen King and Stuart K. Duncan joined the opinion.

Walsh Gallegos Trevino represented the defendants. Stapleton & Stapleton represented M.L.

The case is Longoria v. San Benito Indep. Consol. Sch. Dist., 5th Cir., No. 18-41060, 11/4/19.

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