Litigation of counsel Martin Flumenbaum and firm Chairman Brad Karp’s latest Second Circuit Review column, “Off-Campus Speech, Student Safety, and the Limits of School Authority: Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central School District,” appeared in the November 26 issue of the New York Law Journal. The authors discuss a recent decision in which the Second Circuit applied for the first time the First Amendment framework for off-campus student speech.
The petitioner in Leroy was a high school senior in 2021 who, on the day the jury began deliberations in the George Floyd murder trial, shared a photo on his Snapchat story of a friend kneeling on his neck, with the caption “Cops got another.” Following an investigation, the school issued a five-day suspension and ban on extracurricular activities. Leroy appealed, and his case eventually reached the Southern District of New York, which granted summary judgment to the defendants, concluding that the school’s disciplinary actions did not violate the First Amendment. The Second Circuit reversed, applying Supreme Court precedents for student free speech, though the court declined to develop a bright-line rule for when a school’s interests will outweigh a student’s First Amendment rights.
Litigation associate Michael Pisem assisted in the preparation of this column.
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