Jones v. State Board of Education

Background

A student at Tennessee A. & A. State University was suspended indefinitely after a Faculty Advisory Committee charged him with distributing a pamphlet urging a boycott of fall registration. He and two other suspended students sued the university in federal court, arguing the suspension violated free-speech and fair-hearing rights. The District Court ruled for the university, and the Court of Appeals affirmed, so the student appealed to the Supreme Court.

Reasoning

The central question was whether a state university may expel or indefinitely suspend students for distributing controversial leaflets. After oral argument, the Court reviewed the record more closely and found the suspension was partly based on a committee finding that the student lied at his hearing. The per curiam opinion said that this fact makes the record unclear and therefore the case is not a proper vehicle for the Court’s first decision on campus free-speech limits. For that reason the Court dismissed its review as improvidently granted and did not decide the free-speech merits.

Real world impact

Because the Supreme Court declined to rule on the merits, the lower-court judgment upholding the suspension remains in effect. The ruling leaves unresolved whether and when public universities can discipline students for protest speech. The decision is not a final answer on student free-speech rights and could be revisited in a future case with a clearer record.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Douglas, joined by Justice Brennan, dissented: he argued the pamphlet was protected speech, the campus is a proper place for such expression, and the student deserved notice and a hearing on any lying charge; he would have reversed.