Ward v. Polite’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “All educators must be able “to assure that participants learn whatever lessons the activity is designed to teach.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 271 , 108 S.Ct. 562 . Just as a junior high school English teacher may fail a student who opts to express her thoughts about a once-endangered species, say a platypus, in an essay about A Tale of Two Cities, see Settle, 53 F.3d at 155, so a law professor may fail a student who opts to express her views about Salvador Dali and the fourth dimension in a torts exam. That the First Amendment protects speech in the public square does not mean it gives students the right to express themselves however, whenever and about whatever they wish on school assignments or exams. “A school need not tolerate student speech that is inconsistent with its basic educational mission.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 266 , 108 S.Ct. 562 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 958 F. Supp. 2d 795 - Corlett v. Oakland University Board of Trustees

2. “closer expression comes to school-sponsored speech, the less likely the First Amendment protects it ... [a]nd the less the speech has to do with the curriculum and school-sponsored activities, the less likely any suppression will further a legitimate pedagogical concern, which is why the First Amendment permits suppression under those circumstances only if the speech causes substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 988 F. Supp. 2d 826 - Nixon ex rel. A.N. v. Hardin County Board of Education

3. “[s]o long as the teacher limits speech or grades speech in the classroom in the name of learning and not as a pretext for punishing the student for her race, gender, economic class, religion or political persuasion, the federal courts should not interfere.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. William Felkner v. Rhode Island College