The Student Press Law Center and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the case of a Mississippi student rapper punished for a profane song posted to YouTube.
The Supreme Court will now have to decide whether to hear its first case on student off-campus online speech.
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of a Mississippi school district for suspending a student for a rap video posted online, furthering a debate on whether the Tinker standard should apply to off-campus speech.
After the Supreme Court ruled on Elonis in June, free-speech advocates worry about potential consequences on student social media speech.