Ninth Circus strikes again in uniform case

Whoever insisted the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is such a liberal court must not have had their brain screwed on straight. In sheer number of cases that have gone awry, the Ninth Circus has got to be the most conservative and activist federal court in America. I can't even count the number of right-wing activist rulings the court has issued just in the past 10 years.

Just yesterday, the court ruled that public schools requiring students to wear uniforms does not violate the First Amendment (overturning a lower court decision). Um, yes it does too violate it. It violates it very clearly. The dissenting judge in this 2 to 1 decision correctly pointed out that the Supreme Court's ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines covers the rights of students to express themselves freely, which means uniforms' groupthink should be nixed.

The case resulted from schools in Clark County, Nevada, having a right-wing uniform policy. Students punished for violating the dress code enlisted the ACLU to help them fight the schools' meddling. One of the students had repeatedly violated the dress code, resulting in 5 suspensions totaling 25 days. Repeatedly breaking the dress code is exactly what I would've done (as I've stated before).

Reportedly, this Ninth Circus ruling is binding on all the states in its jurisdiction. Uh, what about Tinker v. Des Moines? Isn't that binding nationwide? In other words, the 2 judges who ruled in the majority in the Ninth Circuit case weren't even following the law! They practically admitted they weren't following the Constitution: They said uniforms were valid because they felt the policy promotes real educational goals, implying that this view should trump what the Constitution actually says. If that isn't legislating from the bench, what is? This is the current decade's equivalent of Antonin Scalia's "role model effect."

I guess that's 2 more judges for the impeachment block.

California, which is covered by the Ninth Circuit, has a law requiring public schools to allow students to opt out of uniforms. However, schools ignore this law. Nevada doesn't require an opt-out but says schools must consult with parents before mandating uniforms. Obviously, the Clark County Schools didn't do that, or else uniforms would've been rejected. (I don't believe for one minute the school system's claim that 55% of the parents support uniforms. I know how schools don't send surveys to folks they think will dissent.)

I think we had already reached the point where we need a federal statute protecting the right of free expression in America's public schools. But with schools in California ignoring the opt-out safeguard, I wonder if schools will even obey such a law.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/12/MNGG10L2Q3.DTL)