"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Litigant's Interview Published

On Sunday, the Longview (TX) News-Journal published an interesting interview with Joseph Frederick, appellant in a first Amendment case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last month. (See prior posting.) Frederick unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" while his high school watched the Olympic torch pass through Juneau, Alaska. Frederick told the paper:

I was looking for unusual, hilariously funny, provocative and controversial speech that would not be easily understood but would be wide open to subjective interpretation to anyone that read it. When (the principal) demanded to know the meaning, I told her it could be interpreted as an acronym for "Bring on the national games, head into town for Jesus" — but that was not the meaning. I told her the banner message was never intended to promote drugs or religion but the message was to be interpreted subjectively and a person was free to assign whatever meaning and value to the banner they desired to assign to it, and if someone interpreted it as a religious message or a drug message then that is what the sign meant to them....

My message to the school was clear. "I am asserting my First Amendment free speech rights, there is nothing you should be able to do about it, and I am doing it in front of a national audience," CNN news. The underlying message I believe is quite clear: No one can interfere with my free speech rights and the free expression of my thoughts. I guess I took my Texas spirit and stubbornness with me when I moved to Alaska.