Julie Seaman

The Supreme Court has reiterated several times over the past sixty years that “students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In 1969, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the court upheld the constitutional right of students to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. Though it acknowledged that public school students’ speech rights were not as robust as they would be in the village square, the court articulated a relatively rigorous standard that requires school administrators to demonstrate a genuine prospect of a “substantial disruption” to the educational environment in order to restrict student speech.

Associate Professor Julie Seaman's op-ed in the New York Times discusses the case of Sandeep Bharadia, who received a life sentence in 2003 for sexual assault. It now appears DNA evidence (that was not introduced at trial) exonerates him. But Georgia precedent says he isn't entitled to a new trial. "What is most troubling about the Georgia Supreme Court's decision is that the issue of innocence becomes irrelevant if there has been a failure of due diligence," she writes. "In effect, the ruling elevates finality over justice to the point that an innocent person can be imprisoned, even executed, because of errors made by his lawyer. Absent a constitutional safety net, an innocent person convicted after a procedurally adequate trial is out of luck."

The judge in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial apologized today after stopping a television news report from being broadcast. Judge Jerry Baxter signed an emergency motion Friday on behalf of the prosecution. He lifted that order this morning. Lifting the order was appropriate says Emory Law Professor Julie Seaman, who teaches first amendment law. "If the press has lawfully obtained truthful information, it's very difficult constitutionally for a court to prevent its publication in advance."