First Amendment
Lawyer Seeks Cert for Football Players Booted Off Team for Petition Drive
Posted Jun 18, 2008, 11:18 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
High school football players booted off a team for a petition drive against their coach are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their First Amendment case.
Three of the students on the Jefferson County, Tenn., football team were not allowed to play after they circulated a petition criticizing coach Marty Euverard, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. It read, "I hate Coach Euverard, and I don't want to play for him." The coach had been accused of humiliating players and ordering the destruction of recruitment letters for those he disfavored.
Eighteen players signed the petition, but Euverard allowed them to remain on the team if they apologized and said they wanted to play for him. Lawyer Michael Kelley filed suit for the players kicked off the team that argued their First Amendment rights had been violated.
The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted in its decision last year (PDF) that students in extracurricular activities don’t have the same free speech rights as the student body at large. It said the coach’s actions could be justified by the need to maintain order and establish team unity.
“Confusing the right to express one’s opinion with the right to participate in a voluntary government program on one’s own terms would lead to an unworkable legal regime,” the court said.
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