This weeks reading covered constitutional protections afforded to sport participants and spectators. For this weeks discussion, select one of the following prompts to answer. Use the textbook reading and cases and articles found on SLA to support your answers and discussion with your peers responses. Remember to think critically as you answer these prompts, there is not always just one answer.
1. When is it appropriate for a school to regulate free speech? Is there a specific test or precedent that courts will use to determine whether speech is protected or not? What cases have been decided where courts have found suppression of speech to violate first amendment rights and/or that such suppression was appropriate? Identify a recent issue or current news story where first amendment rights of athletes are being contemplated.
2. What is the precedent of drug testing athletes? Do courts differentiate when the testing took place (i.e. pre-employment versus random drug testing). Provide a case example of when courts have upheld drug testing and when courts have found drug testing to violate an athlete’s Fourth amendment. Why do you think the court decided differently in these two cases?
3. Read Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education and Farther v. Boca Raton. Explain the differences, if any, between the cases settled by the Supreme Court of the United States and those settled by federal courts.
