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"Pennsylvania students Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez won't have to worry about removing their "I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)" bracelets anytime soon, as the nation's highest court declined to hear their school district's latest appeal to ban the accessories. The United States Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not take up Easton Area School District's appeal in the case, putting the issue to rest after more than three years. The school district filed its appeal to the Supreme Court in October after district and federal circuit courts ruled against its favor."

The Student Press Law Center voiced concern Monday that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling denying the First Amendment claims of a high school blogger is a setback for the rights of student journalists everywhere. The New York appeals court ruled 3-0 that school administrators did not violate "clearly established" First Amendment precedent, either when they disciplined Avery Doninger for her off-campus blog or when they punished her and her classmates for wearing "Team Avery" T-shirts at a school "The ruling is worrisome in several respects. What Avery Doninger was doing was not terribly different from what an editorial commentator might do - trying to arouse the public to call and email the school to express an opinion about a disputed policy decision. It's troubling that the Second Circuit is willing to entertain the possibility that inciting citizens to contact their public officials is unprotected by the First Amendment if the issue is so controversial that people feel strongly about it, which is the takeaway from this decision," LoMonte said. "The circuit has indicated, in essence, that it's safe for students to engage in discussion about issues that nobody cares about, but if the issues raise strong emotions, then the students' involvement might be considered 'disruptive.'"  "It's clear that the federal courts have abdicated their responsibility to protect the basic human rights of vulnerable young people, and so young people are going to have to organize and mobilize like never before to petition their legislators and members of Congress for better statutory protection," LoMonte said. "This ruling is a wake-up call to every student in America that their rights are in peril and that they cannot depend on the federal courts to police even the clearest disciplinary overreactions."

Doninger must file for appeal with the Supreme Court by July 25, and Blue Mountain School District must file by Sept. 12. The Supreme Court will then decide if it will hear either of the cases. They would be the first rulings from the high court on students' right to free speech on the Interne

The U.S. Supreme Court began its October 2011 term this morning, kicking off what could be a major season for the student media. The SPLC is tracking five cases that will be addressed by the Court this term - even if it is just to refuse to hear the appeal. Any one of these cases could dramatically reshape the First Amendment climate for students. Before we preview those cases, however, it's worth brushing up on some High Court 101.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has upheld a U.S. law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups. The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.

A former student at Elizabethtown College was, indeed, probably surprised earlier this month after a Pennsylvania federal district court ruled that the school broke no rules when it hired a investigation service to snoop on his email account without his knowledge. In a disturbing decision - though, sadly, not particularly surprising to those of us who watch these things - the court again confirmed that when it comes to campus email, we live in public.

The Supreme Court denied Monday the certiorari petition filed by Avery Doninger's attorneys, effectively ending three years of legal wrangling in a period that saw the rise of a host of off-campus, online student expression court cases.

"mong several federal appeals court rulings on student speech in the spring and summer of 2011 were five involving high school students punished for off-campus, online speech. The issue appears increasingly likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve an apparent split among several circuits and to address confusion about whether the Supreme Court's standards for censoring or punishing student speech should extend off campus."

"The Doninger decision was made in the context of nuanced civil procedure, and law governing student free speech rights previously mangled and misconstrued by other courts. If anything, the Doninger decision says more about the state of student free expression, than any one jurist's take on free expression and the First Amendment."

Two conflicting online student speech rights cases are scheduled to be reheard on June 3. The decisions, which are likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, will govern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the Virgin Islands and dictate the authority schools have over what students write on social networking sites.

The 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania ordered on Friday that the conflicting rulings in two student online speech cases be vacated and heard by the full court in June. This order nullifies the previous decisions, which were each made by panels of three judges each, and will replace them with decisions made by the entire panel of 3rd Circuit judges, after a hearing on June 3.

Washington (CNN) -- Sentencing juvenile criminals to life in prison without parole is "cruel and unusual" punishment, especially when their crime is not murder, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The Supreme Court must abandon the Tinker standard in these cases of off-campus school-related speech and create a new standard that restores dignity and respect for school officials. Courts cannot continue to use Tinker as a tool to substitute their judgment for the expertise of beleaguered school officials.

Amanda Knox, an American college student, was convicted in 2009 of the murder of her British housemate in Perugia, Italy. On Oct. 3, 2011, an Italian appellate court overturned the homicide convictions of Ms. Knox and a co-defendant and ordered them freed, ending a sensationally lurid trial that had made Ms. Knox notorious on both sides of the Atlantic.

A London court ruled on Wednesday that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, can be extradited to Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual abuse there last year. He will seek a final appeal to the Britain's highest court, according to a person close to Mr. Assange

"The suit was eventually settled out of court, but the issue hasn't gone away, said Courtney Bowie, a senior staff attorney with the Racial Justice Program of the New York City-based civil-liberties advocacy group. "At the time, the case law wasn't quite as clear as it is today as to whether it is permissible for a school district to search the entire contents of a student's cell phone," Bowie said an in an interview. "In 2010, smartphones that could basically hold all the power and information of a computer were still a new thing, and [this issue] hadn't really been fleshed out in the courts yet." "

"A northern New Jersey school district's code of conduct that extended to off-campus behavior was struck down today by an appeals court that said the policy exceeded the authority given to local districts by the state. The case stemmed from a policy instituted in 2009 by the Ramapo Indian Hills School District in Bergen County. It sought to ban students from extracurricular activities if they were charged with illegal activities, regardless of whether the alleged behavior occurred on school grounds."

Public schools in Western states can continue teacher-led reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, after a federal court ruled against a group of atheist parents.

Fresh from deciding one major free-speech challenge last week, the Supreme Court said Monday that it will take up another: whether states may forbid the sale of violent video games to minors.