The banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court decision has been sent to a museum in Maine after failing to find a home in Juneau where it was first made.<\/p>\n
The banner had been on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., but that museum recently closed, according to Doug Mertz, a lawyer for the banner’s owner. The Juneau-Douglas City Museum was unable to display the banner because of its size, Mertz said.<\/p>\n
The banner’s owner, Joseph Frederick, wants to hold on to it in the hopes of somehow monetizing it to create a college fund for his two young daughters, Mertz said. Frederick currently lives in Wuhan, China, Mertz said, and tried to find a home for the banner in Juneau. The Alaska State Library and Museum has other artifacts from the case, Mertz said, but would only accept the banner as a donation.<\/p>\n
The banner, made of duct tape and butcher paper, was mailed Tuesday to the First Amendment Museum<\/a> in Augusta, Maine. The museum is planning to have the banner professionally treated in order to preserve it, Mertz said, but since Frederick still retained ownership of the banner, there’s a chance it could return to Juneau. The museum currently has the banner on a five-year loan, Mertz said.<\/p>\n The banner arrived at the First Amendment Museum Thursday, according to Max Nosbisch, manager of visitor experiences, and will be sent to a professional in Indianapolis for preservation treatment before being returned to the museum for display.<\/p>\n “One of our challenges is just finding a wall big enough,” Nosbisch said of the banner, which is about 16 feet long.<\/p>\n The case began in 2002, when Juneau-Douglas High School student Joseph Frederick held the banner up across the street from the school as the Olympic Torch Relay was running by. The school’s then-principal, Deborah Morse, took the banner and suspended Frederick for 10 days. Frederick sued, arguing his First Amendment rights had been violated.<\/p>\n [New bill would allow Alaskans to know when data is collected<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n A student’s free speech is protected so long as it doesn’t significantly disrupt the learning process, Mertz said, but for Frederick’s case the Supreme Court created an exemption. Because the banner made a specific reference to drug use, the court ruled that there was an exception for a student’s free speech when authorities can reasonably conclude the speech is promoting illegal drug use, according to the Federal Court’s summation<\/a> of the case. Marijuana wasn’t legalized in Alaska until <\/a>2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The Court held that schools may ‘take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use’ without violating a student’s First Amendment rights,” the summation says.<\/p>\n Frederick and the Juneau School District eventually settled, Mertz said, but the case set an important precedent for future cases.<\/p>\n