A Student's Right to Receive Information in the Public School Library

Abstract

[FULL TITLE] A Student's Right to Receive Information in the Public School Library: An Exploration of the Supreme Court’s Pico Decision

[ABSTRACT]
The only Supreme Court case to address the nature and scope of a student’s First Amendment right to receive information in a public school library is Board of Educ., Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico (1982). Pico affirms that students do have a right to receive information in their school libraries. However, the dissenting justices in Pico raise several, strong objections to the plurality opinion. These objections call into question the legal coherence of the Pico decision. Moreover, Peltz (2005) fears that Pico may be undermined by future Supreme Court decisions that attempt to align Pico with more recent rulings that weaken the free speech rights of students. In this article, the author discusses these “problems with Pico” and clarifies the scope and durability of a student’s right to receive information in the public school library. He concludes that Pico is indeed a legally problematic decision with an uncertain future. Based on precedents set by Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986), Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988), U.S. v. American Library Association (2003), and Morse v. Frederick (2007), Pico is likely to be overturned or substantially weakened the next time the Supreme Court rules on the rights of students in public school libraries.