Justin Driver on the Supreme Court and the Cultural Battle Within America's Public Schools (Audio)
The Supreme Court and the Cultural Battle Within America's Public Schools
In a new book, law professor Justin Driver argues that public school has served as the single most significant site of constitutional interpretation within the nation’s history. He says “no other arena of constitutional decision making -- not churches, not hotels, not hospitals, not restaurants, not police stations, not military bases, not automobiles, not even homes -- comes close to matching the cultural import of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence governing public schools.”
Driver’s book makes the case that the Supreme Court has failed to protect the constitutional rights of public school students since the 1970s -- in ways relating to free speech, random search of students, and repressive dress codes. As a result, he says lower courts have upheld questionable behavior in public schools across the country.
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