Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Litigation Blogs -> How Appealing

Litigation

: How Appealing

Second Circuit rules against high school student who claims her First Amendment rights were violated when she was disciplined by the school for posting a vulgar and misleading message about an upcoming school event on an publicly-accessible web log

Second Circuit rules against high school student who claims her First Amendment rights were violated when she was disciplined by the school for posting a vulgar and misleading message about an upcoming school event on an publicly-accessible web log: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today issued its ruling in the much-anticipated case of Doninger v. Niehoff.

Today's opinion begins, "Plaintiff-Appellant Lauren Doninger appeals from the August 31, 2007 order of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Kravitz, J.) denying her motion for a preliminary injunction. Doninger v. Niehoff, 514 F. Supp. 2d 199 (D. Conn. 2007). Doninger sued Defendants-Appellees Karissa Niehoff and Paula Schwartz, respectively the principal of Lewis Mills High School and the superintendent of the district in which LMHS is located, when her daughter, Avery Doninger, was disqualified from running for Senior Class Secretary after she posted a vulgar and misleading message about the supposed cancellation of an upcoming school event on an independently operated, publicly accessible web log (or 'blog')."

The introductory paragraph continues, "Doninger, alleging principally a violation of her daughter's First Amendment rights, moved for a preliminary injunction voiding the election for Senior Class Secretary and ordering the school either to hold a new election in which Avery would be allowed to participate or to grant Avery the same title, honors, and obligations as the student elected to the position, including the privilege of speaking as a class officer at graduation. The district court denied the motion, concluding that Doninger had failed to show a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits. Because Avery's blog post created a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption at LMHS, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion. We therefore affirm the denial of Doninger's preliminary injunction motion."

The federal district court's decision, which today's Second Circuit ruling affirms, can be accessed at this link. My earlier coverage of this case appears here (covering the Second Circuit's oral argument) and here (covering the trial court's ruling).

Full post as published by How Appealing on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).