Cecilia Lacks v. Ferguson Reorganized School District R-2

I dissent from the court’s denial of the petition for rehearing en banc. I believe that consideration by the full court is necessary to maintain uniformity of our decisions and, more importantly, because this case involves issues of exceptional importance. See Fed. R.App.P. 35(a).

This case is not about whether students should or should not be permitted to use profanity in their creative writing assignments or anywhere else in school; indeed, I have no quarrel with a school policy that clearly and strictly prohibits students from using profanity in all school-related activities. Nor is there…