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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Courts - "In MySpace Cases, Appellate Judges Wrestle With Possible Split"
Updating yesterday's ILB entry, Shannon P. Duffy of The Legal Intelligencer reports today in a long story that begins:
Providing a rare study in contrasts, the federal courts in Pennsylvania have had markedly different reactions to two strikingly similar First Amendment cases involving students who were disciplined for ridiculing their principals by creating fake profile pages on MySpace.com.The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has sided with the students in both cases, arguing that since the parody profiles were created outside of school, the school officials had no right to impose any discipline.
So far, the ACLU has won one case and lost the other. And now it appears likely that the appellate judges are also inclined to disagree. Remarks from two oral arguments revealed a sharp split among the judges about how to view the ever-evolving issue of student free speech cases within the context of the Internet and social networking sites.
If the disagreements prove to be sharp enough, it could force the appellate court to sit en banc, with one or both cases being argued before a 14-judge panel.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 3, 2009 08:52 AM
Posted to Courts in general