Island Trees School District v. Pico
Encyclopedia
Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853
(1982), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court
held that the First Amendment
limits the power of local school boards to remove library
books from junior high schools and high school
s.
of the case:
According to footnote 3 of the ruling, the books at issue have included Slaughterhouse-Five
, The Naked Ape, Down These Mean Streets
, Go Ask Alice
, and The Fixer
.
, affirming the Court of Appeals, controlled the outcome of the case. Brennan announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion joined by Justices Marshall
and Stevens
, and joined in all but Part II-A(1) by Justice Blackmun. Justice Blackmun filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Justice White
filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.
Justice Brennan noted the Court had previously held that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503, 506
(1969). The First Amendment in this case included the right to read library books of the student's choosing.
Brennan concludes the plurality opinion with a discussion of the extent of the school board's authority to remove books from the school library:
Justice White, while agreeing that there should be a trial to resolve the factual issues, concluded that there is no necessity at this point for discussing the extent to which the First Amendment limits the school board's discretion to remove books from the school libraries.
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1982), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
held that the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
limits the power of local school boards to remove library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
books from junior high schools and high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s.
Facts
According to the syllabusSyllabus
A syllabus , is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive...
of the case:
- Petitioner Board of Education, rejecting recommendations of a committee of parents and school staff that it had appointed, ordered that certain books, which the Board characterized as "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Sem[i]tic, and just plain filthy," be removed from high school and junior high school libraries. Respondent students then brought this action for declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Board and petitioner Board members, alleging that the Board's actions had denied respondents their rights under the First Amendment. The District Court granted summary judgment in petitioners' favor. The Court of AppealsUnited States court of appealsThe United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
reversed and remanded for a trial on the merits of respondents' allegations.
According to footnote 3 of the ruling, the books at issue have included Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier called Billy Pilgrim...
, The Naked Ape, Down These Mean Streets
Down These Mean Streets
Down These Mean Streets is the autobiography of Piri Thomas, a Latino of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent who grew up in El Barrio , a section of Harlem that has a large Puerto Rican population...
, Go Ask Alice
Go Ask Alice
Go Ask Alice is a controversial 1971 book about the life of a troubled teenage girl. The book continues its claim to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who became addicted to drugs, but this has been dismissed as false. Beatrice Sparks is listed as the author of the book by the United...
, and The Fixer
The Fixer (Malamud novel)
The Fixer is a 1966 novel by Bernard Malamud inspired by the true story of Menahem Mendel Beilis, an unjustly imprisoned Jew in Tsarist Russia. The notorious "Beilis trial" of 1913 caused an international uproar that forced Russia to back down in the face of world indignation. The Beilis case is...
.
Opinion of the Court
While no single opinion commanded a majority of the Court—indeed, the case produced seven opinions from the nine Justices—the opinion of Justice BrennanWilliam J. Brennan, Jr.
William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990...
, affirming the Court of Appeals, controlled the outcome of the case. Brennan announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion joined by Justices Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
and Stevens
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 19, 1975 until his retirement on June 29, 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest member of the Court and the third-longest serving justice in the Court's history...
, and joined in all but Part II-A(1) by Justice Blackmun. Justice Blackmun filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Justice White
Byron White
Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White won fame both as a football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he served until his retirement in 1993...
filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.
Justice Brennan noted the Court had previously held that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503, 506
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1969). The First Amendment in this case included the right to read library books of the student's choosing.
Brennan concludes the plurality opinion with a discussion of the extent of the school board's authority to remove books from the school library:
Concurrences
Justice Blackmun, concurring, concluded that a proper balance between the limited constitutional restriction imposed on school officials by the First Amendment and the broad state authority to regulate education, would be struck by holding that school officials may not remove books from school libraries for the purpose of restricting access to the political ideas or social perspectives discussed in the books, when that action is motivated simply by the officials' disapproval of the ideas involved.Justice White, while agreeing that there should be a trial to resolve the factual issues, concluded that there is no necessity at this point for discussing the extent to which the First Amendment limits the school board's discretion to remove books from the school libraries.
Dissents
Chief Justice Burger filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Powell, Rehnquist, and O'Connor joined. Justice Rehnquist filed a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice Burger and Justice Powell joined. Justices Powell and O'Connor each filed an additional dissenting opinion.See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 457
- Island Trees Union Free School DistrictIsland Trees Union Free School DistrictIsland Trees Union Free School District is a school district in central Nassau County on Long Island, approximately 31 miles east of New York City. The district includes parts of the following hamlets; Levittown, Bethpage and Seaford....
- List of banned books
External links
- Island Trees School District
- Five Teens Win the Right to Read by Chris CrutcherChris Crutcher-Biography:Crutcher was born to a World War II bomber pilot and a homemaker on July 17, 1946, in Dayton, Ohio. They later moved to Cascade, Idaho, where Crutcher grew up....
- Interview with Barbara Bernstein on the Pico Case - Supreme Court and School Library Censorship, by Mary Minow, LibraryLaw Blog, 10 August 2009.