Nicholas Goldberg: The Supreme Court debates the all-powerful F-word
Summary: This time the language wasn’t used to comment on a burning social issue. But isn’t it time we got over our squeamishness?
Written By:
Nicholas Goldberg, Los Angeles Times |
11:00 am, Apr. 26, 2021
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Fifty years ago, a 19-year-old L.A. man forced the Supreme Court to consider a provocative four-letter epithet.
(Samuel Corum/Getty Images/TNS)
The F-word will soon be coming to the nation’s most august courtroom — again.
This time, it will get there courtesy of B.L., an anonymous young woman who wrote a profanity-filled Snapchat post after she was rejected for her high school’s varsity cheerleading team. Her post — and her school’s decision to punish her for it — has ignited a free speech case that will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court next week.